truth in what the Flatterers of Kenneth boast that by this means the Govetousness and Slaughters of Kindred are avoided Neither are the Treacheries of Guardians less to be feared to the Children of Kings left in Minority than of their Kindred wherefore now the Tyrant being fallen who Ravished our Liberty let us valiantly resume the same and his Law Enacted by force and assented to by fear if it be a Law and not rather a selling us for Slaves let us abrogate and repeal the same and Restore again our Ancient Fundamental Laws which brought forth this Kingdom of nothing and from so small beginnings not only advanced to such an height as is inferiour to none of our Neighbours but when cast down hath again raised the same to its former Strength and let us imbrace the present opportunity while it offers it self which if once Elapsed we may in vain seek again The People are by this perswaded and the Twelfth day after the Funeral of Kenneth he is chosen King Anno Domini 994. And was after Slain in Battel in the Town of Vaumond in Louthian in the Second Year of his Reign And though Milcolumbus or Malcolm the second Son of Kenneth the Third who was so tormented in Conscience for Poysoning the first Son of his Brother Duffus to get an Act to Intayl the Grown to his own Posterity made no Conscience to kill Grinius another Son of the same Duffus in Battel Malcolm Son of Kenneth revives and confirms the Law making the Kingdom hereditary and having by the Success gotten the Power of the Sword into his hand in the Same manner as his Father Kenneth had by force Enacted again by force confirmed at the Same Scone by Parliament the Act of Intayl of the Crown to the Issue of Kenneth Buchanan 196. Yet doth Buchanan the same Historian p. 200 201 censure this Act of changing the Ancient Law of Election by Parliament of the Brother or any other person more fit than the Son to be Injust Imprudent and Infortunate Objections against the Reviver 1. Injust 1. Injustice Because he saith Italex enervat vires consilij publici sine quo nullus Legitimus dominatus potest consistere Such a Law enervates the Strength of Parliaments without which no Lawful Government can be for all Government is either by Conquest or Contract As to Conquest there is none demanded or acknowledged on Such a Title As to Contract there can be none without a Parliament who are the Representative of the People to contract for them 2. Imprudent â— Imprudence Because Propinquorum in eos qui Regno potiuntur insidias et Regnantium adversus eos quos et natura et lex voluit â—â—ique esse Charissimos suspitiones nesarias quas narrationis or do Exphrabit tot priorum Seciâ—â—orum clades cum illis collatae calamitatibus quae Alexandri tertij interitum sunt consecutae Leves prae ijs tolerabiles videri possunt The Treacheries of Kindred against those who enjoy the Kingdom and the wicked Suspitions of those who Reign against them who by the Bonds of Nature and Law they ought to esteem most dear as this discourse in order shall declare And the Slaughters of so many former Ages compared with the Calamities which hereby followed the death of Alexander the Third were light and tolerable Note Alexander the Third began his Reign Anno Domini 1649. he Married first Margaret Daughter to Henry the Third King of England by whom he had Alexander the Prince David and Margaret who married Hangonamus or as some call him Ericus Son to Magnus 4th King of Norway who bare him a Daughter commonly called the Maiden of Norway The Maiden of Norway had United England and Scotland if she had lived Skene And concerning this Lady of Norway saith Buchanan Lib. 8. p. 241. Edvardus Anglorum Rex gnarus suae sororis neptem Regis Norvegiae filiam unam Ex Alexandri posteris esse superstitem Eandemque Regni Scotorum Legitimam Heredem Legatos ad eam deposcendam filio suo in Scotiam misit c. Edward the First King of England knowing his Neice the Daughter of the King of Norway to be the only Remaining Issue of Alexander the Third and Lawful Heir to the Crown of Scotland he sent his Ambassadours into Scotland to ask her in Marriage for his Son They when they Argued much in the Publique Gonvention of the Publique Benefit which would ensue such Marriage they found the Minds of the Scots not Dis-inclined from that affinity for Edward was a man of great Courage and of great Power and Ambition of greater And the glory of his Valour in the Holy Warr while his Father was alive and in Subduing Wales after his death shone bright Neither could they ever Remember the Scotish and English name to have been nearer Conjoyned than under the Last Kings Neither could old Hostility be more Commodiously abolished then if there were an Union made of both Nations upon Honest and Equal Conditions The Marriage was therefore Readily Assented unto and Conditions added by Mutual assent of both That the Scots should so long use their own Laws and Magistrates till such Children should be born of the same as were able to Reign And if none should happen to be procreated or being born should dye before their Lawful age Then the Kingdom of Scotland should go to the next of the Blood-Royal Things being thus Agreed Michael or as others mention Daevid Wemes and Michael Scot two Knights of Fife of great Repute for their Prudence with their Country in those Times were sent Embassadors to Norway but they because Margaret for that was the Young Ladies Name dyed before their Arrival returned home sad and nothing done by whose immature death there arose such Controversie as vehemently shook England and almost destroyed the Name of the Scots For to go on with the History as he and other Writers Relate it not withstanding this new Act of Intayling the Crown Ten Competitors arose to the Crown of Scotland notwithstanding the Act of Reviver making the same hereditary there arose Ten Competitors for the Succession Erick King of Norway Florence Earl of Holland Robert Bruce Earl of Anandale John de Baliol Lord of Galloway John de Hastings Lord of Abergaveny John Cumyn Lord of Badenair Patrick de Dunbar Earl of March John de Vesey Nicholas de Hues William de Ross All or the most part of them alledging themselves descended from David Earl of Huntingdon Younger Brother to William King of Scots and Great Uncle to the late King Alexander But the Principal and most Potent Factions which contended were that of Balyol and Bruce On which saith Sir Richard Baker Hist 96. broke out the Mortal Dissention between the Two Nations which consumed more Christian Blood and continued longer And the Wars between the Factions of Baliol and Bruce then any Quarrel we read of ever did between any Two People in the
in the World And his Predecessors had been fresh in Memory too much turmoyl'd with the Bishop of Rome and their own Bishops and John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sent himself though in the Head of a Victorious Army in France an Insolent Letter wherein he charged him with Violation of the Rights of the Church and Magna Charta and many other Matters and threatned to Excommunicate all his Officers Too great Affronts for so Great a Prince not to become sensible how dangerous It would be to suffer Bishops to have to do with the Marriages Filiations and Successions of Kings and thereby to put power into their hands to Depose and Dis-inherit his Successors when they pleased and William Whickham Bishop of Winchester who was Confessor to his Queen Philippa and ingratiated himself by Alice Peirce the King's Concubine An incredible Lie by a Bishop concerning John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Tinsell's Hist 78. for Money shewed after how ready they should be to Act such Feats for Alice Pierce against Sons of first Wives for out of hatred to the Famous John of Gaunt King Edward's Fourth Son for no other cause but because he was a great Favourer of Wickliff's Doctrine the Proto-Protestant of England spread a false fame on him That the Queen Philippa one of the most Vertuous Wives that ever was had confess'd to him at her Death That he was not the King's Son but that she to please the King the more who desired Sons above Daughters she being Delivered of a Daughter caused her Daughter to be secretly conveyed away and this John the Son of a Flemish Priest to be brought and put to Nurse instead of her for the King's Son A most Incredible Lie but such a one as shews what Certificates Kings Sons may happen to have from Bishops for being Favourers of the Protestant Religion It is not therefore to be imagined that it was intended by this Statute in those times the Bishops and their Mass-Books and Certificates should have any thing to do with the Lady Companion of the King or their Eldest Son The King likewise then knew that by the then Laws of the Land A King is Supreme Ordinary of his own Marriage he had in himself the Right of Ecclesiastical Supremacy and that he was the Supreme Ordinary of his own Marriage and did never therefore intend to give away his own Prerogative to Pope or Bishop who being Supreme Ordinary could Self-Marry himself and without the Bishop Certifie his own Marriage 8. Books of Canons Common Prayer-Books Banns Lycenses Priests Temples and all other Ceremonies without which Marriage is forbidden being only Mala Prohibita and the Scripture prohibits the Prohibitions themselves of these Mala Prohibita to Marriage and calls such Prohibitions the Doctrine of Devils which is already proved Lib. 1. p. 52. What is Borum in se by the Law of God cannot be made Malum in se by the. Law of Man 9. Marriage without the Common Prayer-Book and Priest being only Malum Prohibitum by the Law of Man and the same Marriage being Bonum in se by the Moral Law of God Malum Prohibitum by the Law of Man cannot make that Malum in se which is Bonum in se by the Law of God As it was Bonum in se for Daniel to pray to God though Darius Dan. 6.7 by his Decree made it Malum Prohibitum to pray within Thirty Dayes except to the King or if he had said Except by the Book of Common-Prayer or Book of Canons it had been all one And under a great Penalty of being cast into the Den of Lyons yet notwithstanding this had not nor could make it Malum in se in Daniel to pray to God without the King Common Prayer-book or Book of Canons within the Thirty Daies prohibited much Less had it been a Malum in se for Darius himself who had the Supremacy notwithstanding this Ecclesiastical Law of his own whereby he Prohibited prayer or if he had prohibited Marriage to his Subjects to have Prayed or Marryed himself in the Manner himself and not the Law of God had Prohibited 10. Priests use to Self-Sacrament themselves though they have not Supremacy without any other Priest What hinders therefore why they may not Self-Marry themselves A Priest may self marry himself seeing Popery it self could never pretend to Raise Marriage to a higher Pitch then a Sacrament 11. If Priests may Self-Marry themselves there is no Reason why Lay-men should not be allowed the same Liberty of Conscience to Self-Marry themselves without a Priest A Lay-man may self-marry himself As a King who is Supreme Ordinary may Marry himself without Ceremonies by the Law of the Land So the Subject may marry himself by the Law of God which is above the Law of the Land 12. Qui potest majus potest minus And that Act which doth perfect Marriage is greater than any Act which doth only prepare or inchoat and leave it imperfect Now it is not denyed by the Popish Casuists and Schoolmen and the Civilians and Canonists themselves But carnal knowledg only perfects Marriage if therefore a Lay-Man may self-Ly with his Woman which perfects Marriage without a Common-Prayer Book or Book of Canons after the Priest hath first had her before him by his Bell Book and Candle why may not the poor Lay-man save all his Money and Selfe Ring the Bell Selfe take the Book Selfe light the Candle or Torch Selfe contract himselfe per verba de praesenti And then Selfe lye with a Woman or do it first without acting all this impertinent Pageantry and Running Round about Church unless they would bring in again the old Pagan way for the Priest likewise to Do the Act of Perfection of Marriage The Kings of Israel and Judab The Ottoman Emperours and Subjects Self-Marry themselves without a Priest as the Indian Priests and too many of the Popish Priests do Ly with the Woman first before the Husband 13. It is very well known that the Ottoman Emperours and Subjects of their Mighty Dominions self-Marry themselves according to the Moral Law of God without Priest Temple Bell Book or Candle yet to the shame of such as call themselves by the name of Christians may it be said Their Marriages are more Chast their Filiation and Successions more Certain and no such Adulteries Fornications Stewes Brothel-houses and Poxes and Plagues and other Mischiefs thereby as those who use all these and all the Luxuriancy of Papal and Episcopal Ceremonies besides in their Marriages And of the Mischiefs came to Solyman the Magnificent by being seduced by Roxalana to break the Custome of Emperours to Selfmarry themselves to Marry her by a Priest appears at large Lib. 2. p. 245. c. Object 3 Not HIS Companion Object 3. The Third Objection is That though the Lady Mother was a Companion to the King Yet she was not HIS Companion which is the Article of Propriety
voluerunt enim opinor viri prudentes ut illae quoties mentionem sui fieri audirent ex adjuncto viri nomine se viris obnoxias esse meminissent 6. The Statute by Compaigne intended Sociam Thalami non Throni And in the same sense is the word Companion used in Scripture Cant. 1.15 It is said Behold thou art fair my Companion thou art fair And Mal. 2.14 Yet is she thy Companion and the Wife of thy Covenant In both which places the word Companion signifies the Companion of the Bed and not of the Throne Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majest as Amor Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Of the like false Translation of the Scriptures by the Bishops of the Hebrew words Shegal and Gibhira into the English word Queen Scripture false translated by Bishops in the word Queen Psal 45.9 Is thus falsly translated Vpon thy right hand did stand the Queen in Gold of Ophir Whereas the Hebrew is only Shegal which signifies no more than Conjux or Wife from Shagal Coivit Concubuit and is no more than a Woman that hath been lain with by her Husband In like manner 1 King 15 13. 2 King 10.13 are false translated Queen the Hebrew word being Gibhira which signifies no more in French than Madame as in the Statute nor in Latin than Hera or Domina nor in English than Lady or Mistress And the Antient Hebrews and many other Nations did no more allow the Title of Queen except to a Queen Regnant than as is already said did the Saxons or Scots for Regina is derived à Regendo and is only proper to Gynarchies and imports none but the Supreme Governess of a Kingdom by which Title Queen Elizabeth was called Neither had Saul or David any Queens but onely Wives nor Solomon himself in all his Royalty of his thousand Wives any Queen for 700 are onely called in the Septuagint 1 King 11.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is no more than Feminae Principes in Latine and Chief Women in English And the other 300 which are falsly translated Concubines as I have elsewhere at large shewed are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie no more in Latine than Juvenculae and in English than the honest name of Young Women Neither was he the Son of a Queen for his Mother wheresoever she is named is onely called plain Bathsheba as 1 King 1.5 And Bathsheba went in unto the King into the Chamber and the King was very old And verse 28. Then King David answered and said call me Bathsheba and she came into the Kings presence and stood before the King And 1 Chron. 3.5 And these were born unto him in Jerusalem Shimeah and Shobah and Nathan and Solomon four of Bathsheba the Daughter of Ammiel That the Bishops have likewise falsly translated all in the Scripture relating to Marriage and Filiation is proved before at full Lib. 2. p. 142. usque ad p. 162. And in other matters as is assirmed by that great Linguist Doctor Broughton Old Testament false translated by Bishops in 848. places The Lady Mother of the Kings Eldest Son was Madame sa Compaigne intended in this Statute they have false translated the Old Testament in no less then 848. places Now that this Lady-Mother was Madame sa Compaigne which are both the words and intention of the Statute is so known as need not be proved by Witnesses For she had the honour to be Primus Amor the first Lady Companion of the Prince the Raies of whose Favour cast upon her made the Lustre of those Graces rarely conjoined in the same person the more illustrious for she was a Virgin and not praepossessed by another She was a Protestant and not a Papist She was a Native and not a Strange Woman She was a Subject and not Imperious In her were conjoined Beauty with Chastity Greatness with Humility Treasure with Frugality Fidelity with Adversity Though she did not reign with him to be called Queen she suffered with him and was partaker of all his troubles no bloudy Wars no Seas no Foreign Countries could fright her from him But as if the Soul of that sacred Queen Eleanor the Companion of the famous Edward I. in his Wars to the Holy Land had transmigrated into her Body she led the Pilgrimage of her life with him whithersoever he travelled and though she had no Crown in her Life she was faithful to Death and beyond Death left him such a pleadge of affection as is hoped by Gods mercy will indear her memory to all Protestants in the three Kingdoms which will evince to all except the Malicious That she was Madame sa Compaigne the Lady his Companion mentioned and intended in this Statute which is sufficient and as much as is necessary to be proved Object 2 Object 2. That she was not married according to the Mass-Book Common-Prayer Book of Canons or Ordinance of Parliament or by a Priest in a Temple therefore the Eldest Son is not within this Statute Answ Marriage by the Common Prayer Book not necessary within the Statute Answ 1. There is neither the word Marriage Mass Book Common-Prayer Book Book of Cannons or Ordinance of Parilament Priest or Temple named in the Statute therefore being not expressed they are not to be intended in so wise a Statute which minded substance and not Ceremonies and Safety of the Royal Blood and not Insecurity and Incertainty 2. Admit the Statute had in express terms said our Lady his Companion married by the Mass-book which was the Book then in Fashion at time of this Statute yet none will deny but when by a succeeding Power this Mass-Book was abolished or changed Marriage by the Common-Drayer-Book not necessary in time of War as in the time of H. 5. the Service Book of Pauls was changed into the Service Book of Salisbury that none need to marry according to it Then as to the Common-Prayer and Book of Cannons at the time of the Princes taking his Lady Companion it is known that both Mass-Book Common Prayer Book Book of Cannons and all were abolished by the then Power of the Sword and it might have been Death for a Prince to have married by a Book of Common-Prayer or in Publick Is any Protestant then so imprudent as to expect in such a time and place of War and the Usurping Power provailing in their contrary Ordinances and threatning death and destruction to all who opposed them that such who were in those dangers should publickly and with Rites and Ceremonies by a Priest Temple and Altar solemnize a Marriage or can any be so sensless as when in the time of King John Pope Innocent Marriage by the Common-Prayer Book not necessary in time of Interdiction Papal or Potentatical the French King and English Bishops conspired together and the Pope Excommunicated and Interdicted the King and whole Kingdom of England for the space
it is not in his Power to make her a Mother for the conception and birth of a Child is a Miracle which none but God can do and of this the Scripture is full Birth of a Child the Act of God and not of Man Psa 127.3 Children are an Heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Psa 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made which is the same with Miraculously made and ver 15. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and ver 16. Thine eyes did see my Substance yet being unperfect and in thy book all my members were written And when all this is done he saith further Psa 22.9 Thou art he that took me out of the womb And we find Jacob was of the same mind for when Rachel Gen. 30.1 said unto Jacob Give me Children or else I die ver 2. Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel and he said Am I in God's stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb whereby there was something else necessary to Rachel's Matrimony than a fruitless Marriage and that Jacob though he Contracted to marry Rachel Contracted not to make her a Mother And till she conceived a Child there was a Marriage but no Matrimony The Objection was She was not Married according to the Law of God therefore the Eldest Son is not within the Statutes Statute requires neither a King de Jure nor a Lady Companion de Jure but only de Facto Ans 2 It were enough still to deny the Sequel 1 Because the Letter of the Statute requires not a Lady Married or lawfully Married or Married according to the Law of God but only a Lady Companion 2 Because it requires not a King De Jure as appears Coke 3 part fol. 7. nor a Lady Companion De Jure nor a Son De Jure But only a King De Facto and a Lady Companion De Facto and a Son De Facto For though the Statute neither doubted King Edward to be a King De Jure or in English a Lawful King as well as De Facto nor his Lady Philippa being one of the most virtuous Ladies in the world to be his Lawful Lady Companion yet should the Statute have said To compass the Death of our Lawful Sovereign Lord the King or of the Lady his Lawful Companion it would have left Succession more doubtful than before For there never was a Law of the Land The word Lawful Incertain and Litigious or Law of God or Contract so clear but Lawyers Ecclesiastical or Common for Money have raised Questions and Doubts in where the word Lawful or any word aequipollent or to that Effect is express'd For first when the word is not expressed there can no Law be Implied or Intended to Judge Lawfulness by but the Moral Law of God But when it is express'd as in the words Lawful Marriage or Lawfully begotten they will expound them by Laws Papal and Episcopal which are not the Laws of the Land and by Laws making Mala prohibita and not Mala in se which are not the Laws of God whereas where it is not express'd it can only be Expounded by the Moral Law of God which is above all Humane Laws and Statutes Secondly A Lawful Successor may be of an unlawful Marriage Because an Act of Parliament may make the Issue of a Marriage though unlawful and contrary to the Law of God Heir to a Kingdom As the Marriage of David to Vriah's Wife accomplished by Adultery with her and the Murder of her Husband yet was Solomon Lawfully made Heir to succeed David So Edward the Sixth succeeded to Henry 8th yet was his Mother Married while Anne of Cleve his former Wife was alive And that the unlawful Marriages of Parents ought not Illegitimate or be an Impediment to the Succession of Children is fully already proved Lib. 1. p. 80. And to the same end the present Statute Enacts no more in general for the safety of the eldest Sons of all Kings than the Famous Queen Elizabeth 13 Eliz. 1. doth for her own Heirs in particular by which Statute it is Enacted to be High Treason To affirm that any ought to be Heir and Successor to the Queen The Crown entailed to the Natural and not Lawful Issue of the Body of Queen Elizabeth except the same be the natural Issue of Her Body So the old Lesson of the Lawyers of the words Lawfully begotten is left out yet no question that Pious Queen intended more Lawful Heirs than they with their Indentures and the Priests with their Banns or Benedictions used to make 4 Because though Successions to private Patrimonies may be held in suspence by Disputes of lawful and unlawful yet ought not Successions to Kingdoms so to be which many times not only the least Delay but even the neglect of clearing all Doubts and declaring the Successor before-hand destroys or involves in most bloody Civil Wars to be after destroyed 5 Because as is before touched concerning the word Queen no Penal Statute ought or can be Extended by Equity nor any thing be made within an Act of Treason but what is within the Letter of the same But such Marriages or other Matters which are by any other Statute made High Treason ought to be Expounded to be within that Statute within the Letter of which is so named or made And not within the Intention of this Statute wherein it is not so made As by the said 13 Eliz. 1. It is made High Treason to affirm That the Laws and Statutes do not bind the Succession of the Crown that is Treason within the 13 Eliz. 1. But not within the 25 E. 3. for all which Reasons though as 't is at first said It were sufficient to deny the Sequel and say no more yet that Malice it self may not have any pretence to Cavil I hope by God's assistance Briefly Cleerly and Unanswerably when the next Objection is answered to prove she was both De Facto and De Jure Married according to the Law of God Object 5 No Wife no uxor Obj. 5. The fifth Objection is That the Lady Mother was no Wife according to the Law of God in Scripture The Reasons of this Objection are 1 Because the Scripture calls a Woman taken without Ceremonies only a Concubine or half-Wife 2 Because No Concubine or half-Wife or uxor in Scripture The word Uxor signifies only a Woman made a Wife by the Ceremony of Vnction of the Husbands Door-Posts or some other Ceremony Ans 1. Though it were sufficient to shew that there 's no such word as Wife Concubine or half-wife in the Statute and what is not in the Letter of a Penal Law cannot be supplied in the Intention nor extended by Equity and though it were sufficient to deny the Sequel yet to display the more the falsity of the Allegations I shall shew there are no such words in Scripture
Illegitimate alike how he pleaseth for Filiation and Legitimation The Power of Alienation by the Father of the Goods neither Legitimates or Illegitimates the Child are Jure naturae and Jura Sanguinis and Jura naturae sunt immutabilia and Jura Sanguinis nullo Jure Civili divini possunt Upon the whole I conclude that were there no other Example but this it utterly overthrows all manner of Objections whatsoever can be invented against the Right of Primogeniture and makes ridiculous all Popish Fictions of Illegitimation The Marriages of the Kings of Judah and Israel and all the Ebrews might be Copulatione without Ceremony Godw. Antiq. Selden As to the Laws of the other Nations besides the Hebrews first to touch on the Greeks Jus Coronae of Greece as to Legitimation Eustatheus on Homer concerning Teucer who was a Natural Son affirms That whosoever is born of a Prince is lawfully Born and so Teucer was held in as great Esteem as any other and injoyed his Inheritance for as Servius saith in Greece Consuetudinis Regiae fuit ut Legitimam Vxorem non habentes aliquam licet Captivam tamen pro Legitima haberent ut Liberi Ex ipsanati succederent The Common Law of Greece was That if a King had not a Lawful Wife any Woman he had a Captive Slave should be accounted Lawful and his Children by her should be his Successors So this was the Jus Coronae of Greece though it was otherwise as to Succession amongst the Subjects Children for they had only a Filial Portion of a Thousand Drachmae which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not Illegitimated or left without Portion Amongst the Roman Emperors there was no such thing ever heard of as Illegitimation of the Emperors Children Jus Coronae of Great Britain as to Succession differs from the Law of Succession as to Subjects till the Papal and Episcopal Laws overtopt the Imperial nor any such thing ever heard of except falsly Translated amongst the Kings of Israel or Judah or in the whole Scripture nor in the Ottoman Empire nor in any Nation except where Popes and Bishops have set their foot and as to the Jus Coronae of Great Britain as 't is well known the same is necessarily in many things as to Succession different from the Common Law of Succession to the Subject So it is as well known that neither the Romish nor Brittish Bishops have dared though they have Usurped on the Subjects to invade the Legitimation of the Crown in Great Britain and if they have as in the famous Prince Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth it hath been fruitless First Constantine the Great was the Natural Son of Constantius Sorus by Helena a Brittish Lady who is called his Concubine and whom after the Birth of his eldest Son the said Constantine he repudiated and after Married Theodora the Daughter-in-Law of Maximinianus the Emperor yet Constantius Clorus dying here in Britain his eldest Son Constantine the Great without Scruple made by any succeeded his Father in the Government of Britain and all other Western Provinces belonging to his Father's share of Empire in Scotland Gillus Nothus Gillus Nothus succeeded to his Father Evenus notwithstanding that false name of Nothus cast on him by the Romish Episcopal Laws contrary to the Law of God which Evenus was a Wife and a good Prince yet he never contracted the Mother of his eldest Son Gillus by the Ceremonies of a Priest or Temple yet was this in a time of Christianity and not of Paganism for Donald was the first Christian King of Scotland Anno Domini 199. which was long before Gillus Buch. Rer. Scot. 103. Et Skene in his Table of Kings Robert the Second of Scotland Robert the Second of Scotland Elizabeth More and Eufemia a good and peaceable Prince for those Atticbules doth Skene in his Table of Kings give him took to him according to the words of this Statute to be the Lady his Companion Elizabeth More the Beautiful Daughter of Sir Adam More his Subject without any Ceremonies of Priest or Temple and had Issue by her John Robert and Alexander after he deserts Elizabeth and Marries her to Giffard a Nobleman of Louthean And by the Ceremonies of a Priest and a Temple Marries Euphemia the Daughter of Hugh Earl of Ross and had Issue by her Walter after Earl of Jearne David after Earl of Athol and Euphemia after Married to James Douglas after Euphemia the Queen dies and much about the same time Gyford dies King Robert resumes Elizabeth and Marries her by the Ceremonies of a Priest and Temple as appears by Buch. Rer. Scot. p. 107. where he saith that after the Death of Euphemia Robertus non tam impatientia Coelibatûs quam Amore filiorum ex Elizabetha Mora prius Genitorum ipsam Vxorem duxit hanc enim eliganti forma Adami Mori illustris Equitis filiam adhuc adolescen◠vehementer amarat Ex eaque tres filios duas filias susceperat eamque Gifardo viro nobili in Lothiana curaverat collocandam verum sub idem fere tempus Eufemia Regina Gifardo Elizabethae Marito Defunctis Rex sene vetere consuetudine Morae inductus sive quod a multis traditur ut filios quos ex ea genuerat Legitimos faceret matrem eorum sibi Matrimonio junxit filios statim divitiis honoribus auxit Johannes natu Maximus Carictae Robertus Tinchi◠Alexander Buchaniae Comites sunt facti adjecta etiam Badenach nec munificatione Contentus Comitiis ad Sconam indictis obtinuit ut praeteritis Eufemiae Liberis in Rege creando gradus aetatis observaretur Whence may be observed 1. That the Sons of a Lady born before any Marriage of her with the Ceremonies of a Priest or Temple succeeded to the Crown of Scotland 2. That she was a Lady not Prohibited by the Law of God for the King to Marry 3. That she was the Daughter of a Subject 4. That the Subsequent Marriage by the Papal Law signified nothing for no stress is laid on it but the Confirmation and Declaration of the Successors sought from the Parliament 5. Though there were other Sons born of Euphemia the Queen who was Ceremoniously Married by a Priest in a Temple yet the Parliament thought just to pass by her Sons and to settle the Succession on the Sons of Elizabeth Athelstanus Nothus Legitimate per Jus Coronae Athelstan was the eldest Son of King Edward the Elder before the Conquest by a Lady his Companion to whom he was never Contracted by the Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple but a Lady not Prohibited by the Law of God to have Married King Edward had after him five younger Sons by two Wives whom he had Ceremoniously Married by a Priest in a Temple and died after his Death notwithstanding the fourth Son of King Edward by one of his Episcopal Wives was left alive and notwithstanding the Priests and others
were since called Harlots from her name Arlotte yet we find no proof of any Inchastity in her only she could Dance Ala mede de France and if they can prove she was Guilty of any worse and were an Harlot it only makes the President the stronger that the Law and Custom at that time and Countrey was that the Duke's eldest Son though by a Woman taken without any Ceremony of a Priest or Temple ought after the Death of the Duke succeed to the Dukedom neither was this way any other Law or Custom than what is already shewn to have been amongst the Princes of the Hebrews Greeks Romans and all other Nations not inslaved by Superstition to receive the Forms of Marriage and acknowledge the Supreme Jurisdiction of them to be in the Bishop of Rome or their own Prelates or Pontiffs by which Examples it appears That by the Brittish Scottish and Norman Laws the eldest Sons of Kings by Women not Prohibited to be Married by the Law of God though not Joyned by a Priest in a Temple or any other Episcopal Ceremony yet by Right of Primogeniture they succeeded in the Governments of their Fathers Dominions It will be asked how then came the ancient Law of God and the Land to be changed concerning these matters of Marriage Filiation and Succession and the Jurisdiction to be got or pretended to be in Episcopal hands to Judge and Dispose of Marriage Filiation and Successions both to the Crown and Lay-Inheritances according to Canonical Laws and not the Laws of God nor the Land To which is answered Hugh Capet an Usurper of the French Crown to curry favour with the Pope first disinherited natural Children That as to Normandy and other the English Dominions after acquired in France as Bodin says fol. 741. Hugh Capet was the first that made a Law in France That natural Sons that is to say such whose Parents were not Married by the Popish Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple should not be Heirs nor succeed to the Kingdom And at last strain'd his Law to that Degree of unnatural Cruelty and Folly that it was Enacted That natural Children should not be accounted natural Children which Nonsence in that time of Popery was not only followed by the French but imitated to get Money by the English and Scotish Ecclesiastical and Common Lawyers who as hath been already shewn would not admit natural Children to be Sib Kin of Consanguinity nor Children to the Father who begot or the Mother who bare them as if it had been in the Power of Hugh Capet and them to overthrow or change the Laws of God and Nature Prohibition of Marriage Sans Ceremony a French Toy to disinherit all Protestant Children So likewise by a French Decree as saith Everard p. 24. All Children born in Marriages not Blessed by a Romish Priest are made incapable to succeed to the goods of Father or Mother the Law of Capet was plotted by the French Bishops to get themselves Supremacy of disposing the French Crown which foundation of Power they commonly got from Usurpers to the intent that by their Ecclesiastical pretence of Authority they might protect a false Title and disinherit the true Heirs of the Blood Heylin in his Geography p. 186. saith That Popes strengthen themselves by unlawful Marriages of Princes and not by lawful and p. 101. Popes strengthen themselves by unlawful Marriages and Successions of Princes and not by lawful That Hugh Capet being a Prince of a strange Blood was hoysâ—d up by the People to the Prejudice of Charles of Lorrain the true Heir of France as Brother to Lotherius and Uncle to Lodovicus the last King of the Line of Pepin And p. 129. he saith The occasion why Capet was chosen and Charles of Lorain refused was this Charles Son to Lewis the Fourth King of France being left to the courtesie of his Brother and by him not regarded was by Otho the Emperor invested in the Dutchy of Lorain Anno 984. which containeth one Marquisate five Earldoms and divers Baronies The eldest Son likewise of Lorain is intitled Prince of Barry for which cause that he received Lorain from the Emperor Charles shewed himself so alienated from the French and wedded to the Germans that the French after the Death of his Cousin Lewis the First rejected him and chose Hugh Capet for their King This Charles had one Son named Otho and one Daughter called Hermingrade from her descended Isabel Wife to Phillip the Second uniting the Bloods of Pepin and Capet to the great content of her Grandchild St. Lewis who being a Man of a very tender Conscience is said never to have Joyed in the Crown of France till it was proved that by the Mothers side he was the right Heir of Charles of Lorain whom Hugh Capet had so unjustly dispossessed French and Popish Laws of Marriage seek to destroy all English Heirs and the Protestant Religion So it appears this French Law against Natural Sons was made to disinherit the true Heirs of the Royal Blood of France and to inherit the Certificate Heirs of the French Bishops and the other French Law mentioned against all Succession of the Children whose Parents at their Marriage received not the Benediction of a Romish Priest was made on Design to disinherit all Protestant Children The Law of Theodora against Natural Heirs was to Disinherit the true and Inherit adulterous Heirs The Law of Trent nulling all Marriages without a Priest and Witnesses was to set to Sale Community of Women to raise Rents out of Stews to lay a Tribute on Marriage and inslave the Successions of Kingdoms and private Patrimonies to the will of Popes and Bishops Are there any Degenerous English so much Frenchified as will impose French Laws of Succession on the English Crown Capet's Law not to be compared with the Law of Edw. the 3d. Shall Hugh Capet's Laws dare to contend with this Law of Edward the Third who beat and Conquered the greatest Navies and Armies of France and in tryal by Battel at Cressey proved his Right better to the Title of King of France than the Heir of Capet his and had the same Heir of Capet taken Prisoner in Battel by the Black Prince the Heir of this Statute Are there any so false Protestants as to introduce such Popish Laws as disinherit all Protestant Children Are there any so prophane Christians as will prefer the Ceremonial Laws of Men above the Moral Laws of God It hath been shewn thus far by the Examples of so many Kings of this Island of Great Britain that their Legitimation and Succession thereby to the Crown were by the Moral Law of God and not by the Ceremonial Laws of Romish or Brittish Bishops and none dared in Great Britain though they did in France assume the Supremacy of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction above the Royal and Parliamentary in Declaring the Successors of the Crown or if they did they were overthrown in like manner may
it be said of all the Kings and Queens which succeeded concerning whom any Question of Legitimation was raised as for Example John of Gaunt the fourth Son of Edward the Third because he was a great favourer of the Wicklenites who were in those days most Zealous Protestants was so hated by the Bishops to whom the Doctrine of Wickliff was then terrible that the then Bishop of Winchester John of Gaunt for favouring Protestants falsly slandred by the Bishop of Winchester to be Illegitimate Confessor to his Mother Queen Phillippa falsly slander'd him to make him Illegitimate That he was the Son of a Flemming and not of King Edward though his Mother Queen Phillippa was the most virtuous Wife of a King that was then in the World and to Illegitimate his Posterity by the Lady Katherine Swinford who was a virtuous Lady and not Prohibited by the Law of God to be Married But yet never was Married to him by the Ceremony of a Priest or Temple and by whom he had Issue John Duke of Somerset Thomas Duke of Exceter Henry Bishop of Winchester and Cardinal and Joan a Daughter which Daughter and all her Brethren were sirnamed Beaufort from Beaufort a Castle which he had in France where they were all Born and in regard thereof bare the Portcullis of a Castle for the Cognizance of the Family and these four Children though they were Legitimated by Act of Parliament in the Twentieth year of King Richard the Second and made capable of all Dignities yet by Episcopal Power there was inserted Excepta dignitate Regali which did as much as lay in an Exception so much Illegitimate them to the Crown that Coke says Part 4. fol. 37. Henry the 7th dâ—riveth â—imselâ— from Katherine Swinford 〈◊〉 Maâ—…d by a Priest in a Temple The best Title of Henry the Seventh who derived himself from John de Beaufort Duke of Somerset Son of John of Gaunt by the Lady Katherine Swinford was by Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth which Episcopal Opinion of his would not have been taken for Law if he had lived in the time of H. 7. himself who notwithstanding this Episcopal Illegitimation assumed the Title of the House of Lancâ—ster as Legitimate by the Law of God Both York and Lancaster derive the Lines from Persons slander'd to be Illegitimate by Laws of Men but made Legitimate by the Law of God and descending from a Lady not Prohibited to have been Married to John of Gaunt by the Law of God In like manner the Lady Elizabeth eldest Daughter to King Edward the Fourth by the Lady Elizabeth Gray from the House of York claims was declared Illegitimate by Richard the Third because as was allâ—adged E. 4. was praecontracted to the Lady Lucy which Lady Elizabeth was her sâ—lf likewise first promised in Marriage to the Daulphin of France before she was Married to H. 7. yet was she Legitimate and her Issue Legitimate by the Law of God and succeeded United to the House of Lancaster to the Kingdom according to the same Law The same hath been before mentioned of the Lady Elizabeth More her Children by Robert the Second King of Scotland were Born before any Ceremonial Marriage of a Priest in a Temple yet were they all Legitimate by the Moral Law of God Edward the Sixth Illigitimated by Papal Laws but Legitimated by the Law of God the eldest succeeded to the Crown In like manner King Edward the Sixth was declared Illegitimate by the Pope and the pretended Ecclesiastical Laws but he was Legitimate by the Moral Law of God and succeeded to the Crown accordingly Lastly Queen Elizabeth was not only declared Illegitimate by the Pope but by the Acts of Parliament of her own Father H. 8. which is above any Declaration or Proclamation of a Privy Council Queen Elizabeth Illegitimated by Papal Laws and Act of Parliament but Legitimated by the Law of God yet no true Protestant doubts but she was Legitimate by Moral Law of God which is above all Laws and happily succeeded to the Crown according to the Law of God to the Comfort of all Protestants From which Examples and Reasons appears the truth of the Thesis before laid down 1. That the Legitimation and Succession of Kings eldest Sons born of Women not Prohibited by the Moral Law of God was never questioned by any Laws except that of Popes and Bishops 2. That Legitimate and lawful Heirs may be Born of unlawful Marriages 3. That the Moral Law of God hath always been and still is the greatest Security of Legitimation and Succession to the Crown of Great Britain and ought to be prefer'd above all Ceremonial Laws of Men. 4. Next to the Moral Law of God the greatest Humane Security of Legitimation and Succession to the Crown is either a general Act of Parliament as this is constituting and ascertaining the Heir by a General or Special Distinction or Description or when any doubt or danger ariseth by Act of Parliament Declaratory of the Particular Successor or Name That 't is High Treason by this Statute for any Subject to slander the King 's eldest Son with Illegitimacy Though Papal and Episcopal Canons have made their ordinary work to Illegitimate the most Sacred Persons of Protestant Princes who disdain to buy their Mercenary Dispensations Faculties Licences and Pardons of Popes or Bishops and particularly the most Pious King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth And as is said Jude 8. Defile the flesh despise Dominions speak evil of Dignities yet let them know there is this Statute above all their Canons and Synods will punish their wickedness if they presume to Illegitimate any King of England or his eldest Son it seems on these Reasons 1. Because this compasseth the Death of the King himself his Father for who destroys the Kings Armies or Fleets which should defend him compasses his Death but Non legiones non classes aeque firma imperii Munimenta ac numeros Liberorum Not Legions nor Fleets equally defend a Kingdom as Children And above all Children the eldest Son All which is more authentically expressed by a great King and Souldier Psa 127.3 Lo Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are the Children of the youth happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them they shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the Enemies in the Gate And likewise as to the eldest Son the Scripture it self magnifies him as an high defence to the Father as Jacob expresseth of his Gen. 49.3 My first-born my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power And who hath Vindicated His Majestie 's Honour and Safety in Wars abroad and against Popish Plots Assassinations Pistols Poniards and Poisons at home with such Fidelity Affection Zeal Constancy Vigillancy and Valour as his eldest Son And
of her own Body but while there was a possibility she might she Declared by 13 Eliz. 1. They should be her Successor and Enacts a Penalty of High Treason against those who should affirm the contrary 3. That Queen Elizabeth doth not think it fit that her Legitimation should be Judged by Popish Laws as she could expect no other would endeavour to be done if she permitted a Contest between her and a Papist What Shall a Virgin Queen be Judged by Laws which as is already shewn came from the Priests of Priapus and Venus Shall a Protestant Queen be Judged and Shot to Death by the Cannons and Constitutions of the Strumpets Theodora Marozia and the Whore of Babylon No she was Judged Legitimate by the Holy Moral Law of God and the Protestant Religion to be Successor to her Natural Father and though he forsook her God took her up and by his assistance the Gates of Hell were not able to prevail against the truth of the same And let any Papist now if he can shew any Reason or Scripture why he should with foul mouth asperse the Legitimation of King Edward the Sixth or Queen Elizabeth or the Kings Eldest Son or why the latter ought not to be Successor as well as was the former and Print the same with his Name subscribed And no question there are Protestants enough will answer him Yea The Interest of a Prince Legitimate by the Moral Law of God and the Protestant Religion to maintain both against Popish Ceremony and Superstition let him prove if he can That 't is not only the Greatest Honour to a Protestant Prince himself but a great Mercy and Providence of God to a Protestant People to offer them such a Prince whom he hath made Legitimate by his own Holy Law and the Protestant Religion and permitted him to be Declared Illegitimate by the Papist unholy Law and Superstition and thereby laid on him the highest Obligation of his own Interest to maintain the Holy Moral Law of God and Protestant Religion against the Popish Ceremonial Laws and Superstition and far worse it had been for the Protestants if Queen Elizabeth had not been made Illegitimate by the Papists then that she was To Conclude a full answer hath been therefore already given the Objection That Queen Elizabeth never refused to Declare a Protestant and Lieal Successor but only such as were either Papist or Collateral Obj. 7. A Protestant Successor will not be equal to Papists who are not only a Considerable but a great and potent Party of the People of the Three Kingdoms Answ This is fully answered already before Lib. 2. p. 401 402 403 c. where it is shewn to be the Interest of the Protestant Religion to abolish all Laws of Recusancy equally which are Penal to the Consciences either of Protestants or Papists except as to Mass Idols and Popish Priests This is likewise answered in the following Reasons wherein it is shewn That not only Protestants but Papists themselves except Popish Priests may hope for greater Security and Happiness from a Protestant Successor than they ever had or 't is possible for them to have from Papist Predecessors or Successors to which I therefore desire to refer Reasons for Declaring a Protestant Successor by the King and Parliament HAving answered all Objections against Declaring of a Protestant Successor I shall now only add some few Reasons for the same arising from the Great and manifold Dangers caused by the Neglect 1. Danger to the Conscience of a Prince 1. The first Danger is to the Conscience of a Prince when he shall give Account to God of the Neglect of so great a Duty to him and so great a Trust reposed in him by the People as to which There is none doubts but every private Father is by his Duty to God bound while it shall please God to lend him Life and Health and before Death with a sudden Arrest hurry him hence to give an account of his Stewardship to make Provision according to his Power for the leaving his Family in Peace after his Decease much more it is the Duty of all Princes who ought to be the Publick Father of their Countries who have so great Account to Give not only for their own Families but for Nations and Kingdoms and all the Wars Murders Massacres and Devastations which by their default shall happen after their Death To provide while God gives them Life and Health for prevention of such Calamities amongst their People and for the Peace of Succession in the Government over them And in the Statute of 35 H. 8. cap. 1. This great Trust Reposed in the King by the People is exprest a Chief Consideration of Declaring a Successor and setling the Succession of the Crown by King and Parliament in these words in the Preamble of the Act viz. Forasmuch as our most Dread Soveraign Lord the King upon good and just Grounds and Causes Intendeth by God's Grace to make a Voyage Royal in his most Royal Person into the Realm of France against his ancient Enemy the French King his Highness most Prudently and Wisely Considering and Calling to his Remembrance how this Realm standeth at this present time in the Case of Succession and poising and weighing further in himself the great Trust and Confidence that his Loving Subjects have had and have in him c. And to the Intent his Majestie 's Disposition and Mind therein should be openly Declared and manifestly known and Notified as well to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as to all other his Loving and Obedient Subjects of this Realm to the Intent of their Assent and Consent might appear to Concur with thus far as followeth of his Majestie 's Declaration in the behalf and thereupon makes Provision for the Succession of the Crown in the same Act. In like manner it is provided by the Law of Persia as saith Herod Lib. 7. That whensoever the King goeth to War abroad he ought first to Declare his Successor that he may leave Peace at home 2. Danger by the incertainty of the Laws of Succession of the Crown 2. The Danger caused by Incertainty of the Laws of Succession of the Crown and that this is a Great Danger and necessary to be Remedied by a Declaration by King and Parliament appears likewise by the Preamble of the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. 22. in these words viz. Wherefore we your said most humble and Obedient Subjects in this present Parliament Assembled calling to our Remembrance the great Divisions which in time passed have been in this Realm by reason of several Titles pretended to the Imperial Crown of the same which sometime and for the most part insued by Reason of Ambiguity and Doubts then not so perfectly Declared but that men might upon froward intents expound them to every man's sinister Appetite and Affection after their Sons Contrary to the Right Legalty of the Succession and Posterity of the Lawful Kings and
of him as he did his Dutchy of Normandy and do him Homage for it which would add a great Honour to that Crown Then was he be-before-hand with Pope Alexander to make Religion give Reputation to his Pretended Right he promised likewise to hold it of the Apostolick See if he prevailed in his Enterprize whereupon the Pope sent him a Banner of the Church with an Agnus of Gold and one of the hairs of Saint Peter And he likewise by great Promises got his own Brother Odo Bishop of Baieux to furnish him with Forty Ships for his Expedition After William had with great difficulty got the Battel at Hastings wherein King Herold happen'd to be kill'd with an Arrow in his Eye some of his Nobility with all their Power strove to establish Edgar Atheling the next of the Royal Issue in his Right to the Crown but the false Bishops rather bent to let in a Foreign Enemy being fool'd by him with fair Promises than to assist the Native Prince and by their Example drew in the Nobility to trust to his Personal Oath made at his Coronation before the Altar of St. Peter to defend the Holy Church that was the Papist Church and the Rectors and to Govern the Universal People according to the Laws but this Oath and his Promises were as weak to bind him as the single hair of St. Peter he had got from the Pope for as soon as he had Establish'd himself he was not such a Fool to do Homage for England to the French King nor to hold the same of the Apostolick See nor to defend the Bishops and Abbots in their fat Bishopricks and Abbies but as Cambden saith He made such clear work with them that he did not leave one English Ecclesiastick whom he thrust not out of his place and fill'd their Rooms with Erench Sr. Johns And for the English Nobility he drove some to fly to Scotland some to Norway some to Hungary and any other Places where they could be received till in the end he had totally destroyed them and filled their Places with French Contes and to shew himself no partial Dealer with those who would trust his word he spared not his own Brother Odo the Bishop of Baieux but notwithstanding the Forty Ships with which he had Supplied him on promise of better dealing he seized and Confiscated all his Treasure which he had which was very great and hoarded up with an Intention to have bought the Papacy And it is no wonder if mali Corvi malum ovum And he practised the same deceit against themselves and their false Religion had taught him towards others for let a Papist Prince swear never so many Oaths to Papists of his own Religion and break them all the same Religion fits him with Popes enough at his Elbow to Confess and Absolve him instantly or if he doubts his Trencher-Popes cannot do it he can have for Money his Unholiness himself to Absolve him from any Oath Covenant or League with any other Papist Prince whether of Peace or War and how many Examples are there of the same And more easily can he do it with his own Subjects as Dan. Hist fol. 143. King John a Papist King forswore himself to Papist Subjects being Absolved from his Oath by the Pope King John for the Glory of God and Emendation of the Kingdom in Parliament makes Articles of Agreement between him and the Barons wherein are Confirmed all the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and Mutual Oaths taken on both sides by the King and Barons in Solemn manner for the Observation of the same Articles The King likewise sends his Letters Patents to all Sheriffs of the Kingdom to cause all Men of what degree soever within their several Shires to Swear to observe the Laws and Liberties thus granted by his Charter There we see a Papist King agrees with Papist Subjects on Oath in the highest manner and both the King and Barons and the whole Body of the People of what degree soever are solemnly Sworn before God And the Laws and Liberties are likewise Confirmed by Act of Parliament But the next News in the History we hear of is He hath some Papist evil Councellors who tell him he was now a King without a Kingdom a Lord without a Dominion and a Subject to his Subjects whereon this Papist King sends to the Pope and by Bribery he Absolves the King from his Oath Nullifies the Act of Parliament and Excommunicates the Lords Now therefore let it be shewn how these Papist Lords being laid in the Pickle of Excommunication and not having Personam standi in Judicio could have done to have bound the Conscience of their Papist King to have performed to them his Contract Covenant League and Oath or let it be no wonder if Protestants are very fearful to have a Successor of such a Religion or if they think that these Lords had not been more happy if they had had a Protestant King or of any Religion which would have bound his Conscience to have kept his Word and much more his Oath to his Subjects The Papist Lords grown Desperate of Right from their English Papist King run into the other Extreme and will Trust themselves to the Oath of a Foreign Papist King seeing their own would not keep his they send therefore over-Sea and go in great haft to Louys the French Kings Son to Sollicit him to take upon him the Crown of England who is their tres humble Serviteur and as ready to Swear to them as they to him A French Oath pretended surer than an English and to make wise to them that a French Oath was surer than an English over therefore he comes to England in Person with as great a Fleet and Army as the Power of France could make on so likely hopes of a Conquest incouraged by so great a Power of the English Barons who call'd them in and joyned with them and being Landed in Kent in May the Lords bring him to London where he takes his Solemn Oath to Restore their Laws and Liberties and recover their right for them King John who had first forsworn himself was notwithstanding in the Field with another Army against King Louys but fell into a Feaver and Died or as some say was poisoned On his Death many of the English Lords hoping to find more Truth in the Son than in the Father returned from Louys to their Native King and suddenly Crowned Henry the Third the eldest Son of King John being then but Nine years old in a great Parliament Assembled at Gloucester 28 Octob. by which Parliament his Tutelage by Reason of his Minority was Committed to the Great Marshal William Earl of Pembrook a Man Eminent both in Courage and Council And it is likewise to be noted That this Henry was begotten by King John of Isabel the Daughter and Heir of Aymer Earl of Angloulesm who was before the Marriage pre-contracted to Hugh le Brun Earl of March
injoyed near Threescore years after Had Antonio been allowed equal Judges or the Law of God been the Rule of their Judgment or had he been allowed to have pleaded the Law of the Land and Custom of both Portugal or Spain for Natural Sons to succeed the Crown he needed not have looked for more Examples of Natural Children than those from whom King Philip himself derived his many Spanish Kingdoms and according to the Customs of Portugal Don Antonio a Natural Son Crowned King of Portugal Don Antonio was on the Death of Henry chosen and Crowned King of Portugal at Lisbon their chief City till Philip sent the Duke of Alva thither with a greater Army than the Portuguese had put Don Antonio to flight Overcome by Philip flyes to England whom the People had Elected King and within Seventeen Days subdued all Portugal Don Antonio thereon flyes into England where he is kindly received of Queen Elizabeth as descended of English Blood and of the House of Lancaster and having entertained him here divers years his Title of being right Heir to the Crown of Portugal is so far approved by the Queen and Council Queen Elizabeth approves his Title as right Heir to Portugal and the Protestant Doctrine That she gave leave to Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake to undertake an Expedition at their own private Charges requiring nothing of her but a few Ships of War who took along with them Don Antonio the Heir of the Kingdom of Portugal and of Souldiers Eleven Thousand and of Seamen about Fifteen Hundred And setting Sail from Plimouth the Fifth day of April they arrived at the Groyne of Galizia whereof with great Valour they took first the Lower Town and afterwards the Higher and after Sailing towards Portugal they met Robert Earl of Essex who without the Queens leave had put to Sea after two days they arrive at Penycha a Town of Portugal which they took and left the Castle to Don Antonio And from thence they march by Land towards Lisbon Threescore Miles off the Foot Companies led by Norris whom Drake promised to follow with the Fleet being come to the West Suburbs of Lisbon they found no body there but a few poor disarmed Portugals who cryed out God save King Antonio The day following the Spaniards made a Sally in which Skirmish Bret Caresly and Carre three stout Commanders were Slain yet did the Earl of Essex drive the Spaniards to the very Gates of the City And now having tarried here two Days and no likelihood of the Portugals revolting which Don Antonio had hoped but was not probable that the strict hand of the King of Spain then in full Possession on them should give them that Liberty sinding fresh Supplies to come into the Town their own Army Sickly Victuals and Powder failing and what was most of all Sir Francis Drake not bringing the great Ordnance as he promised They departed from the Suburbs of Lisbon towards Caseais a little Town at the Mouth of the River Tagus which Town Drake had taken this mean while who excused his not coming to Lisbon by reason of the Flats he must have passed and the Castle of St. Julian Fortified with Fifty Pieces of great Ordnance Near this Place they found Threescore Hulks of the Hans-Towns of Germany Laden with Corn and all manner of Munition which they took as good Prize towards their Charges in regard the Queen had forbidden them to carry Victual and Munition to the Spaniard From hence they sailed to Virgo a Forlorn Town by the Sea side and Pillaging all along that Quarter returned for England having lost in the Voyage Soldiers and Marriners about Six thousand yet not so much by the Enemy as eating strange Fruit and Distemper of the Climate on which I shall only further observe That Kingdoms are not so easily got again as they are lost and that the Disinheriting of the Natural Heir of the Crown of Portugal was the cause of the seizure and Conquest by the Spaniard of that Kingdom Foreign Princes when the Successor is uncertain will stir up so many antiquated Genealogies Antiquated Genealogies used to be raked up by Foreign Princes that every one may pretend a right to the Crown and it hath been already mentioned that there were no less than Five or Six to the Crown of Portugal no less than Ten Titles Foreign and Domestick in Scotland in the time of Basiel and Bruce and no less than Sixteen in England before the Death of Queen Elizabeth and how far Papist Foreign Princes will go when they have none nearer to draw Genealogies as high as the Man in the Moon and when they have no substance to raise the Ghosts of Titles again from their old Purgatories nor Kif nor Kin to the last Possessors appears by the next Example Hacket endeavours to raise a Papist Title to the Crown Richard Hacket was sent from the English Fugitives beyond Sea in the Reign of Queen Eliz. to perswade Ferdinando Stanly E. of Derby Son to Henry newly Deceased to assume the Title of the Kingdom of England by right of Descent from Mary Daughter to Henry the Seventh and threatning him unless he undertook the Enterprize and withal concealed him the Abettor he should shortly die in a most wretched manner But the Earl fearing a Trap was laid for him revealed it and Hacket was thereon Condemned and Executed for Treason but this Fellow's Threatnings proved not vain four Months after for then the Earl being in the Flower of his Age was miserably Tormented and Vomited Stuff of a dark rusty Colour being thought to be Poisoned or Bewitched There was found in his Chamber a little Image of Wax with Hairs of the Colour of his Hair which some thought was done on purpose that men should not suspect him to be Poisoned his Vomit so stained the Silver Andirons that it could never be gotten out and his Body though put in Cere-Cloths and wrapped in Lead did so stink and putrifie that for long time none could endure to come near where he was Buried Bak. Hist 402. When good Correspondence between Queen Elizabeth and King James of Scotland gave the Papists small hopes that ever he would prove an Instrument to restore the Catholick Religion they begun thereupon to bethink themselves of some English Papist that might succeed the Queen but finding none of their own Sect a fit Person they fixed their thoughts on the Earl of Essex who always seemed a very moderate Man and him they advised to have some right to the Crown by Descent from Thomas of Woodstock King Edward the Third's Son But the English Fugitives were for the Infanta of Spain English Fugitives seek to seâ— up a Title for the Infanta of Spain and to exclude all Protestants from the Crown and desiring to set the King of Scots and the Earl of Essex at odds they set forth a Book which they Dedicated to Essex under the Name of Doleman but
THE RIGHT OF PRIMOGENITURE In Succession to the Kingdoms of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND AS DECLARED By the Statutes of 25 E. 3. Cap. 2. De Proditionibus King of ENGLAND AND Of Kenneth the Third and Malcolm Mackenneth The Second Kings of SCOTLAND AS LIKEWISE Of 10 H. 7. made by a Parliament of Ireland With all Objections answered and clear Probation made That to Compass or Imagine the Death Exile or Disinheriting of the KING 's Eldest Son is High Treason To which is added An Answer to all Objections against Declaring him a Protestant Successor with Reasons shewing the Fatal Dangers of Neglecting the same And when the Husbandmen saw the Son they said amongst themselves This is the Heir come let us kill him and seize on his Inheritance Matth. 21.38 London Printed for the Author 1681. THE PREFACE Reader THE General Question now in Agitation amongst the People is Who is next Lawful Heir to the Crown The Protestant saith The King 's Eldest Son The Papist a Collateral Heir The free Statesman None at all The Two incident Questions to the General and Principal are not rightly stated for they are not as they ought to be made Whether here is a Lawful Marriage or a Lawful Filiation But whether there are Witnesses to prove the Papal and Episcopal Ceremonies of a Marriage and a Filiation which false state the Case and are nothing to the purpose But we cannot come to the resolution either of the Principal or Incidents false or true before the Discussion of Two other Preparatory Questions 1. By what Law Marriage Filiation and Succession ought to be judged Lawful or Unlawful 2. By what Judge the same ought to be judged As to which I have already proved at large in the First Book That the same ought to be judged by no other Law than the Moral Law of God And in the Second That the same ought to be judged by no other Judge than the King and Parliament To avoid therefore vain Repetitions I must desire to refer thee to the First and Second Books for thy full Satisfaction and in this Third shall only from the Two other Premisses make this Conclusion That the King 's Eldest Son is the next undoubted Lawful Heir both by the Law of God and of the Land wherein though I wave the false state of the Question Whether Ceremony or no Ceremony and only insist on the true Whether Lawful or Unlawful yet I desire thou wilt accept these following Reasons for my Excuse 1. In reference to the Parties contending 2. The Laws by which they are to be judged 3. The Witnesses 4. The Court by which they are to be judged As to the Parties contending 1. Because as to the Matter of Fact Whether Ceremony or no Ceremony I am altogether a Stranger and know nothing of it and if I did yet all Council are Prohibited by the Law to speak to any Matter of Fact 2. This hinders not any others from using what Probation they shall please of Ceremonies but all Advantages of the same are hereby to them saved by Protestation 3. This seeks not to hinder any from using what Ceremonies in their Marriages they please which suit best with their Consciences and Conveniences only that which is here affirmed is the Lawfulness and Validity of the Marriages of such with whose Consciences or Conveniences such Ceremonies suit not if they are made without them 4. No Liberty of Conscience no not so much as of Opinion is hereby precluded any man touching the Point in Question nor is he hinder'd from opposing any thing here deliver'd but if he differ is invited to do it so it be in Print with Name subscribed whereby the same Liberty may be given to Reply 5. Because I write to Protestants and only desire to give Satisfaction to Conscience concerning Lawful and Unlawful before God and not to Superstition concerning Ceremony and no Ceremony before the Bishop 6. It were more for the Safety and Interest of the Protestant Religion that a Protestant Prince either waved his Legitimacy by the Papal and Episcopal Ceremonies and Law or were totally Illegitimated by the same as King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth were and as they did Claim his Legitimation and Title from the most Righteous Sacred and Immutable Moral Law of God and the Law of the Land and not from Pontifical Laws To speak next in reference to the Laws by which Marriage and Filiation ought to be judged which are the Laws of God and of the Land agreeing with the same I wave insisting on Ceremonies 1. Because those Laws Civil or Canon of Emperors Popes Bishops Synods or Councils of Trent or other Councils which Impose Ceremonies on Marriage are neither the Laws of God nor of the Land but Usurpations as I have already proved at large Lib. 1. p. 43. Et Lib. 1. p. 31. Et Lib. 2. p. 182 183. 2. To set any value on the Ceremonies of those Laws were to give the Supremacy of the King and Parliament and the Laws enacted by them concerning Marriage Filiation and Succession to Popes and Bishops and their Canons and thereby to give them power to Depose Kings and give or sell the Successions of Kingdoms to whom they please 3. It is cleerly and unanswerably proved in the following Discourse That the Marriage now under consideration was a Lawful Holy and Indissoluble Marriage by the Moral Law of God as declared both in Nature and Scripture To bring a Ceremonial Law therefore where the Moral is so clear were to bring a Candle to give light to the Sun Then next as to the Laws of the Land The Marriage Filiation and Succession are as clear by them as by the Law of God As 1. by this present Statute 2. E. 3. cap. 2. of Treasons as is proved at large and all Objections answered in the following Discourse 2. By the Jus Coronae which is the Common Law of the Land whereby the Law of Succession to the Crown differs from that of Succession to Subjects proved likewise as before 3. By the Law of Necessity which is not only the Law of this but of all Lands and not only of Lands but Seas The time of this Marriage being alleadged to be in a time of War when the Ceremonies of the Common Prayer-Book and it self were abolish'd and prohibited by the Predominant Power of the Sword and the place beyond Sea and in Exile 4. By Presumptions which as to Marriage Filiation and Legitimation are the Law of the Land Praesumptiones Juris de Jure for to speak truly the same are impossible to be proved by Witnesses or any other way than by Presumption as is implyed by the Common Rule Filiatio non potest probari and likewise more fully shewn Lib. 1. p. 104 105. Now the Ground and usual Presumptions of Marriage and Legitimation by the Laws of the Land and of the very Canon and Civil Laws themselves Are 1. Fame and Reputation of Marriage 2.
making the Crown Hereditary to the Eldest Son answered ibid. Objections against the being of the King 's Eldest Son within the Statute of 25 E. 3. cap. 2. De Proditionibus Page 20. Obj. 1. That the Lady Mother was not a Queen ibid. Answ 1. The Statute is false Translated by the Lawyers and the Scripture false Translated by the Bishops in the word Queen ibid. Answ 2. Proved that the Lady Mother was Madam sa Compaign according to the Moral Law of God which is all and more than is required to be proved by the Statute ibid. Obj. 2. No Marriage according to the Mass-Book in the time of E. 3. nor by the Modern Common Prayer-Book or Book of Canons Page 23. Answ 1. No Marriage by any Book required by the Statute but only a Lady Companion according to the Moral Law of God Page 24. Answ 2. Marriage by the Common Prayer-Book not Necessary in a time of War when both Books of Common Prayer and of Canons were Prohibited and Abolished by the Power of the Sword ibid. Answ 3. The Legitimation of Children by the Law of God and of the Land ought not to be question'd after the Death of either Parent where not Judicially question'd and sentenced in their life-time Vid. Praeface Page 25. Answ 4. Not Necessary for a King who is Supreme Ordinary to Marry by the Common Prayer Book or Book of Canons Page 26. Answ 5. A King who is Supreme Ordinary may dispence with his own Canons and with any thing that is only Malum Prohibitum in his own Marriage but not with what is Malum in se by the Moral Law of God Page 28. Obj. 3. The Lady Mother was not HIS Companion which is the Article of Propriety required by the Statute Page 32. Answ She was HIS and he had the sole Propriety according to the Law of God and the Land Page 33. Obj. 4. There was no Marriage according to the Law of God Page 34. Answ 1. Certain Preparatory Considerations are laid down before the contrary is proved to this Negative By what Law and what Judges shall be judged what is the Law of God by which is after proved here was a Marriage according to the Law of God ib. Answ 2. Of the damnable Effects have followed by the Popish Prohibitions and Nulling of all Marriage not made by a Priest in a Temple Page 35. What is not Marriage by the Moral Law of God Page 39. What is not Matrimony by the Moral Law of God ibid. Answ 3. The Statute requires neither a King De Jure nor a Lady Companion De Jure nor a Son De Jure but only De Facto yet are they all here both De Jure and De Facto Page 40. Dangerous to leave the Succession of a Kingdom on so incertain a word as Lawful yet here both the King the Lady Companion and the Son are all Lawful ibid. Answ 4. A Lawful Successor may be of an unlawful Marriage Page 41. Obj. 5. The Lady Mother was not a Wife according to the Scripture Page 42. Answ 1. The Objection is false and it is after proved she was a Wife according to the Scripture ibid. Answ 2. The Statute requires no Wife according to Scripture but only a lawful Companion yet was she both a Wife and a lawful Wife according to Scripture as will hereafter be proved Page 43. Answ 3. The Bishops have falsly Translated the Scripture in all words relating to Marriage ibid. Of certain Differences between a Wife of the Bishop's making and a Wife of God's making Page 46. Obj. 6. There is no Bishop's Certificate to testifie the Marriage and Filiation Page 48. Answ The Statute requires no Certificate of either ibid. The Forms of Bishops Certificates Page 49. Their Original came from the Priests of Priapus Page 50. Of the Damnable Mischiefs insue from Tryal of Marriage and Filiation by Bishops Certificates ibid. The Certificates of Bishops inconsistent with the Right of Primogeniture Page 58. Of the General Custom of Nations of Successions to Kingdoms by Primogeniture and of the Mischiefs and Civil Wars commonly follow the disinheriting of the Eldest Son Page 62. What is Marriage and what Matrimony de Facto Page 66. What is Marriage De Jure according to the Law of God and of the Nations Page 67. Of the three Lawful Marriages amongst the Romans 1 Usu 2 Confarreatione 3 Coemptione Page 68. Of the three Lawful Marriages amongst the Hebrews 1 Copulatione 2 Coemptione 3 Instrumentis ibid. That Carnal knowledge Chastity and Childbirth between a Man and a Woman not prohibited by the Moral Law to Marry makes a Marriage Lawful Holy and Indissoluble without Banns Licence Priest Temple or any other Ceremony whatsoever Page 71. That the Marriage Coemptione Confarreatione or Instrumentis was not intended by Christ but only the Marriage Copulatione Page 86. An Epithalamium on the Marriage of Nature intended by Christ without a Priest or Temple Page 88. Obj. 7. The King 's Eldest Son is not the Heir intended by the Statute Page 90. Answ Proved he is the Heir both in the Letter and Intention of the Statute ibid. That to compass the Exile or Disinheriting of the King 's Eldest Son is High Treason Page 94. Obj. 8. By the Custom of Nations the Succession goes not to the Eldest Son born when the Father is only a Prince but to a younger Son born when he is a King ibid. Answ This Statute was made to prevent incertainty of this and other Customs and prevent all Cavils and Contentions about Succession by ascertaining the same to the Eldest Son Page 95. Obj. 9. The King 's Eldest Son is not yet declared Prince of Wales or of the Scots ibid. Answ The Statute requires no such thing Page 97. Obj. 10. Illegitimacy deprives of the benefit of the Statute ibid. Answ This Statute declares every Eldest Son of a King Legitimate and Heir to the Crown ibid. The Eldest Son of a King of Great Britain is Legitimate by his Birth-right per Jus Coronae ibid. Examples of the same Jus Coronae in other Nations Page 100. Examples of the same Jus Coronae in the Eldest Sons and Daughters of the Kings of England and Scotland who have thereby succeeded as Heirs to their Fathers Kingdoms on Marriages according to the Moral Law of God without the Ceremonies of a Priest or a Temple Page 102 103. That 't is High Treason for any Subject to slander the King 's Eldest Son with Illegitimacy Page 111. A Comparison of the Popish slanders of Illegitimacy against Queen Elizabeth and the King 's Eldest Son Page 112. A Comparison of the Popish slanders of Illegitimacy against King Edward the Sixth Queen Elizabeth the King 's Eldest Son and the Sons and Daughters of the whole Protestant Clergy Page 114. Of the insolent absurdity of Popish Laws Disinheriting the Lawful Sons of Kings according to the Law of God and inheriting the Bastards of Popes by the Law of the Devil
Page 118. CAP. II. WHether necessary in the present juncture of Affairs for the King and Parliament to declare a Protestant Successor to the Three Kingdoms Page 121. Objections against it Answer'd Obj. 1. Declaring a Protestant Successor by the King and Parliament makes a Kingdom Elective and not Hereditary ibid. Obj. 2. Acts of Precedent Parliaments cannot bind Subsequent from repeal Page 122. Obj. 3. Acts of Parliament cannot bind the Power of the Sword from cutting off those Acts by Conquest Page 123. Obj. 4. Declaring a Successor by Act of Parliament incites him to be disobedient and rebellious ibid. Obj. 5. The Ottoman Emperors never declare a Successor Page 124. Obj. 6. Queen Elizabeth refused to Declare a Successor Page 127. Reasons for declaring a Protestant Successor by the King and Parliament with the Great Dangers insue the neglect Page 132. 1. Danger to the Conscience of the Prince ibid. 2. Danger by the incertainty of the Laws of Succession of the Crown Page 133. 3. Danger of the Arbitrary disposing of the Crown by Rome or Canterbury Page 134. 4. Danger of the Predominancy of Papal and Episcopal Laws of Marriage Filiation and Succession above the Moral Law of God and the Laws of the Land ibid. 5. Danger to the King's Person his Lineal Heirs and House Page 135. 6. Danger of Lineal and Collateral Heirs to destroy one another ibid. 7. Danger if the King 's Eldest Son should happen to die before his Father leaving his Heir and younger Children in Minority ibid. 8. Danger of a Successor without Assent of the People Page 137. 9. Danger of a Papist Successor Page 138. A Papist Successor more dangerous to Papists themselves than a Protestant Successor ibid. A Papist Successor or Male utterly Destructive to Protestants and a Female doubly Destructive Page 160. 10. Danger in regard of Foreign Princes Page 182. 11. Danger of exposing Succession to Counterfeit Wills and Testaments Page 190. 12. Danger of incouraging Vsurpers Page 191. 13. Danger in doubtful Titles of Interregnums Page 192. 14. Danger of Cantonizing the Kingdoms ibid. 15. Danger of Exposing the Succession of the Kingdoms to Sale Page 193. 16. Danger of Exposing the Succession of the Kingdoms to Conquest Page 197. LIB III. CHAP. I. The words of the Statute 25 E. 3. cap. 2. De Proditionibus as in the Original French AUxint pur ceo que divers Opinions ont estre eins ceax heurs quel Case doit estre dit Treason et en quel nemy le Roy a le request des Seigniors et Commons ad fait declarisment que ensuist cestassavoire quant home fait compasser ou imaginer la Mort nostre Seignior le Roy Madame sa compaigne ou de lour fits Eigne et Heir The words as Translated by Pulton and Coke into English WHereas divers Opinions have been before this time in what case Treason shall be said and in what not the King at the request of the Lords and Commons hath made a Declaration in the manner as hereafter followeth That is to say When a man doth Compass or Imagine the Death of our Lord the King of our Lady his Queen or of their Eldest Son and Heir The Statutes of Kenneth the Third and Malcolm Mackenneth the Second as related by Buchanan Lib. 6. Rer. Scot. p. 191 196. Adjectae sunt Aliae leges ut quemadmodum Regi maximus natu filius in regnum Succederit ita filio ante Patrem defuncto nepos avo subrogaretur Englished There were other Lawes also added That as the Eldest Son of the King should succeed to him in his Kingdom So if such Son dyed before the Father the Nephew should succeed in his stead to his Grandfather Another Law of Scotland mention'd by Skene Reg. Majest Lib. 2. cap. 33. De Nepote ex Primogenito filio Nepos ex filio Primogenito mortuo jure representationis succedit Avo suo filium postnatum Avi id est Avunculum suum excludit Englished The Eldest Son being dead before the Father the Nephew by the Eldest Son shall in right of Representation Succeed to his Grandfather and exclude any Younger Son of his Grandfather that is to say his Uncle This Law of Scotland was taken out of Glanvil Lib. 7. c. 3. which shews it is the unquestionable Law of England as well as of Scotland and likewise out of the Civil Law L. 3. C. de suis legit Haered l. Posthumorum 13. H. de Injust Testamento c. 33. ex l. 1. § 6. H. de Haered Skene saith further That of this Question between the Son of the Eldest Son and the Uncle Franciscus Vinius Treats at large Lib. 3. Decisionum Decis 501. and he allcadgeth Alciat Cons 101. Bartol in l. post fratres C. 1. de legit haered Bald. Salyc Doctores in l. si viva Mater C. de Bon. Pater The Statute made 10 H. 7. in a Parliament of Ireland called Poyning's Law The words of which are these It is Enacted That all Statutes late made within the Realm of England concerning or belonging to the Common or Publick Weal of the same from henceforth be deemed Good and Effectual in the Law and ever that be accepted used and executed within this Land of Ireland in all Points and at all times requisite according to the Tenor and Effect of the same Coke saith 4 Part 351. That Hil. 10. Jac. Regis it was resolved by the Two Chief Justices and Chief Baron that this word late in the beginning of this Act had the sense of before so that this Act extended to Magna Charta and to all Acts of Parliament made in England before this Act of 10 H. 7. And by the same Reason extends to the Statute of 25 E. 3. cap. 2. De Proditionibus on which this Discourse is founded from whence will be after proved these Conclusions Conclusion 1. This being granted That if the Eldest Son had happen'd to Die in the Life of his Father the Eldest Son of the Prince who died should have Succeeded Jure Representationis of his own Father as Heir Lineal to his Grandfather and excluded the Grandfather's Younger Son who is his Uncle à fortiori must it be granted that if both Grandfather and Father die the Eldest Son who is the Grandchild Surviving he ought to exclude his Uncle for he now comes in Jure proprio which is a greater Right than Jure representationis and if the less Right exclude the Uncle much more must the greater Conclusion 2. When the Right of the Crown shall actual descend from the King in Possession on the Eldest Son in Possession who is the next Lineal Heir of his Blood then is the Son Actually King both De Facto and De Jure as was his Father who died in Possession of the Kingdoms And therefore all the forementioned Acts of Parliament and Common Laws of England Scotland and Ireland and the Imperial Laws with them unanimously declare It will be
not only then High Treason to Compass the Death Exile or Disinheriting of the King 's Eldest Son but whatsoever else is High Treason against a King will be the same against him Objections chiefly by Buchanan against these Statutes and the Policy of them making Kingdoms Hereditary to the Eldest Sons Answered Object Who is best able to defend a Kingdom should have it Object 1. Salus Populi is above all Statutes and the Power of Kings and Parliaments themselves and above all Acts of Parliament Statutes therefore which Repeal the Ancient Fundamental Laws which were in Great Britain of Election by Parliament and in Ireland by the Custom of Tanistry of Succession of the Brother before the Son such Statutes ought themselves to be repealed and not to repeal those which are better and it being most necessary pro salute Populi that he who is best able to defend a Kingdom against Enemies Foreign and Native and hath learnt the same by Age and Experience should succeed which the Brother being more able and fit to do than the Son ought according to those Ancient and Necessary Customes to succeed before the Son which Custome as to Scotland is recited by Buchaman Mos majorum qui è propinquis Regum defunctorum non proximos sed maximè idoneos eligerent modo à Fergusio primo Scotorum Rege essent oriundi The Custom of Scotland was That the Parliament chose out of the Kindred of the King deceased not the next but the fittest so as they were such as were descendents from Fergusius the first King of the Scots and on this Custome Kenneth the Third who was the Brother of King Duffus was by Election of the Parliamem of Scotland preferred before Milcolumbus the Son of Duffus though a Youth of great hopes which Kenneth began his Reign Anno Dom. 970 and proved a most Valiant and Wife Prince and repell'd a Mighty Invasion of the Danes whom he overthrew in a Battel with a great Slaughter of them but the same Kenneth afterwards inflamed with Ambition Covetousness and Cruelty secretly poysoned Milcolumbus the then Prince of Scotland being the said Son of his Brother Duffus deccased and with great dissimulation counterseiting even Tears and great Grief for him Convened a Parliament at Scone whom partly by Terror and partly by Deceit he got to Abrogate the Law of Succession of Brothers before Sons which had made him King and been the Sanctuary of Publique Safety and Enacted a Law of Succession for his own private and not the Publique Interest clean contrary viz. That the Kingdom should be from that time Hereditary in this manner That his own Eldest Son should be Prince of Scotland That when any King dyed his Eldest Son should next succeed to the Crown and if the Eldest dyed living his Father the Nephew should succeed instead of his Son who dyed And other Constitutions as appears Buchanan rer Scotl. 190 191. Who saith further Kenneth making the Kingdome of Scotland Hereditary tormented in Conscience Ita Rex per scelus posteris uti putabat regno stabilito animum tamen suum confirmare non pot uit c. The King saith he having by so great a Wickedness established his Kingdom as he thought to his Posterity he could not Establish his Mind for although he courted all sorts of Men with the highest shew of Love and Courtesie and so managed the Affairs of the Kingdom that there was nothing wanting which shewed him not a good King Yet his Mind perpetually disquieted with the conscience of his wicked fact suffered him not to have any solid or sincere joy but the thoughts of his foul Crime rushing into his memory vexed him by Day and by Night most horrible Dreams disturbed his rest at length whether truly as some affirm or whether his troubled thoughts made him so fancy what oftentimes happens to Guilty persons a voice came from Heaven by which he seemed in his sleep to be warned Doest thou think the Murder of Milcolumbus an Innocent Person committed by thee most wickedly in Secret is hid from me or that I will any longer suffer it to pass without punishment For already there are Plots laid by Treason which thou shalt not escape to take away thy Life neither shalt thou as thou thinkest leave thy Kingdom Stable or Secure but full of Tumults and Tempests to thy Posterity With which fearful Dream the King being terrified Early in the Morning he flyes to the Bishops and Monks and declares to them the Confusion of his Mind and Anguish of his Conscience for his Crime but they gave him no true Remedy from the Doctrine of Christ for they had already degenerated from the Piety and Learning of the Ancient Professors But advised those many absurdities Long since invented by wicked Persons for their own gains and rashly believed of the Unlearned and Overcredulous That he should inrich with Gifts the Holy Places and Temples and should visit the Sepulchres of the Saints kiss their Reliques redeem his Sins by Masses and Alms and should have a greater Honour and Reverence for the Monks and Priests than he had formerly us'd to have Neither did he omit any of these Explations which he believed would help him But he was notwithstanding after by appointment of Fenella a Lady formerly Injured by him and an Ambuscada of Horse laid for him taken and killed as Buchanan p. 192. after the death of Kenneth and this Intayl of the Crown to his Issue by the Murder of his Brother's Son It appears Buchan rer Scotl. lib. 6. p. 192 193. That Constantinus the Son of Caten called Calvus Constantine Calvus procures the Law of Kenneth to be repealed began to dispute much against the Injustice of this Law to which they were circumvented by fear to assent and thus he begins Quid enim Stultius quam rem unam omnium maximam à prudentium censura Suffragiis ad Arbitrium fortunae revocare c. What saith he is more foolish than to take away a matter of the greatest concern from the Votes of Wise Men in Parliament and to cast it on the Wheel of Fortune and that these should bind themselves to be ruled by a Child who hath the chance to be born and who is ruled by some petty Woman and drive away most Valiant Men from assistance in the Government What if the Children of Kings should have any infirmity of Body or Mind whereby they are utterly disabled to perform necessary Acts of Empire what if Children should have possessed the Kingdom in such time when we fought with the Romans Britons Picts English and Danes not for the Kingdom but for Life or what can be said more Mad than what God threatens to the Contumacious that Children should reign over them as the highest Calamity we should enact as a Law on our selves and the greatest Threats of the Divine Prophets we should either contemn or run headlong into it of our own accord Neither is there any
under Imprudent to seek to perpetuate Races against Nature Fate and Providence which are irresistible few above So in the Ancient Kingdom of the Egyptians there were above Twenty Dynastyes at the Period of every one of which the Race of that King who began to Rule the Dynastye Either Expired or was Extinguished or Destroyed and it is easie to see how many Races and Names of several Kings have in short time worn out and been changed to new both in England Scotland France Spain c. It is in vain therefore by human Laws to seek to resist the Decrees of God and perpetuate a Race which God hath appointed to Determine Seeing as Solomon saith Eccles 9.11 The Race is not to the swift nor the Battel to the strong neither yet Bread to the wise nor yet Riches to men of understanding nor yet Favour to men of skill And it is said Dan. 4. The Most High Ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Better therefore both to Princes and Subjects is the Counsel of Christ Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Dan. 7.27 Whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom And as is said Psal 16.11 In his Presence is fulness of Joy at his Right Hand are Pleasures for evermore Answ 1 Answ 1. As to the first Objection That the Brother ought to be preferred before the Son and Liberty left according to ancient Custom to the Parliament to Elect him if he is Judged fittest for Succession And that the Brother is alwaies most fit and more for the Safety of the Kingdom he being alwaies of greater Age and Experience than the Son who may chance to be a Child and more need Tutors and Governours himself than to Govern others As to which part of the Reason of possibility of Minority in the Son I answer First That à Posse ad esse non valet Argumentum And with all due Honour had to the Age and Experience of others the Eldest Son is here no Infant or Minor But hath attained to a higher Maturity and Flower of Age and Strength than Alexander the Great who began at Twenty to Conquer the World and hath shewn already the Highest Proof of Valour in War and Affection to Religion and Justice in Peace Secondly admit it should happen the Eldest Son to be an Infant or Minor as the intention of this Statute is it may which make it notwithstanding his Infancy Treason to Practise against him And though an Eldest Son should be left at the Death of any King an Infant or Minor yet by the Mercy of God the Righteousness of the Title and a standing Parliament During the Minority The Infant and Kingdoms are as Safe as if he were of full Age And more Safe than in the hand of a Collateral Heir of full Age whose Guardianship is most dangerous to a Lineal Heir Answ 2 Answ 2. As to the Reason That it is more for the Fame of Vertue for the Father to have none of his name Than to have his name Lost amongst a Multitude of the same names derived from him to numerous Posterity I shall answer in the words of Buchanan in another place on another dispute p. 406. Quod si de honore unus Et non de omnium salute hic esset disputatio Ego quoque facile ac Lubens ad eorum sententiam accederem verum cum de eo Statuendum sit hodie quod omnium privatorum vitam Et fortunam quod totius Regni incolumitatem complectitur huic uni câ—gitationi omnes Singulorum rationes concedere oportet Answ 3 Answ 3. As to that Reason of the Objection That Periods of Royal Races and Successions to Kingdoms are natural in regard the subject matter is so frail as not to be Capable of Perpetuity and fatal in regard God hath appointed the same by an Immutable Decree and Providential in regard it is often likewise effected by a particular Providence and seeing the Laws by which God Governs the World God governs the World by the Lawes of Nature Fate and Providence are the Law of Nature the Law of Fate and the Law of Providence quae supra nos nihil ad nos they are irresistible and all Human Laws to cause or avoid their effects are in vain To which is answer'd and gladly acknowledg'd That God is pleased to Govern the World by all these Three Lawes First the Law of Nature which is his Decree of Subordination of Causes Secondly the Law of Fate which is his Decree of Co-ordination of Causes to such Ends as to his Wisedom seem best These two are the Greatest Imperial and Immutable Law of the World and against these it is not only folly and a Sin to make Common Laws or Acts of Parliament Not lawful to pray against the Law of Nature or Fate but even to pray Desine fata Deum flecti sperare precando Hope not from Prayers thou Thy Fate from God canst bow Thirdly The Law of Providence which is the Regulation of Accidents which are neither Decreed nor Immutable And this is the Law Paternal Prayers not only Lawful but necessary in matters reserved to Providence by which he Governs all his Creatures sensible of Good and Evil. And as to this Law of Providence human Laws Endeavours and Prayers are not only Lawful in such as are Capable to Pray but necessary to obtain the good and to avert the evil and both these are acknowledged by the Heathen Poets themselves Sed satis est orasse Jovem qui donat et aufert Det vitam Det opes aequum mî animum ipse parabo Hor. lib. 1. ad Lollium Epist Flectitur Iratus voce Rogante Deus Ovid. But if we will take our Limitations of Prayer from Christians they must have alwaies these two That they must be Lawful that is not contrary to any revealed Law or Will of God and likewise be alwaies with submission to his Secret Will The Law Moral a Fourth Law by which God governs the World I Answer therefore That though the Three Laws mentioned are great and wonderful Wages by which God governs the World in general and Successions to Kingdoms in particular yet they are not the only Lawes by which he doth it but there is a Fourth Law as great as any of the former which is the Law Moral the obligation of which is Reward and Punishment which not Improperly may be called a Law Magistratical for as God is the Supreme King and Father so is he likewise Supreme Magistrate of the World and beareth not the Sword in vain And this Law may only be Exercised and the Obligations thereof laid on the most Noble Subjects who are so in Three respects First In regard of their Knowledg as the Law Moral can only be Exercised over the Subjects Sensible and Intellectual What Subjects liable to the Law Moral and
First Because the Exiling or Disinheriting the King's eldest Son indangers the King himself Secondly Because to compass the Exile compasseth the Death of the eldest Son by depriving him of the King's Protection and exposing him to Poison or Assassination of his Enemies and to compass to Disinherit him is a manifest design to destroy him without which his Inheritance cannot be taken from him as Matth. 21.38 They said amongst themselves this is the Heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance And they caught him and cast him out of the Vinyard and slew him Object 8 Obj. 8. The Son of a King born after he is King is to be prefer'd in Succession before the Son of a King born while he is Prince And of this there are many Examples as Henry the First being the youngest Son of William the Conqueror Born when a Prince and born when a King standing in Competition for the Crown of England against Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Brother made this one of his Objections That Robert was born when his Father was but a Duke but Henry was born when his Father was a King and therefore obtained the Kingdom against Robert his eldest Brother And it is recited by Grot. de Jur. Bel. Pac. p. 171. That the like passed in Persia between Cyrus and Arsica in Judea between Antipater the Son of Herod the Great and his Brother in Hungary when Geissa obtained the Kingdom in Germany between Otto the First and Henry though not without Arms and likewise the same Question was between Xerxes and his Brother Atabarzanes and between Artaxerxes Mnemon and Cyrus the Sons of Darius and Parisatis Artaxerxes being the elder but born during the Private fortune of Darius and the like happened between Bajazet and Zemez contending for the Turkish Empire and many others Answ These were put to the Tryal of Battel and for the greatest part the eldest Son had the Success but if it had been otherwise the Event of War is no Rule of Justice and if it had been without War yet where there is a standing Act of Parliament Judicandum est Legibus non Examplis And this Act of Parliament was made to prevent the present and all other Accidents which might happen to disturb the Peace of Succession of the Kingdom and raise Civil Wars which it could not do without all other Sons and Heirs to the eldest Son and there being no other Son mentioned in the Letter of the Statute but the eldest and not a word of Distinction whether born before or after the Father's obtaining the Kingdom Vbi lex non distinguit ibi nec nos distinguere debemus for then the same mischiefs would insue beforementioned of extending a Statute of Treason by Equity which leaves Treason arbitrary to every Judge who will assume to declare it beyond the Letter and to insert as many kinds of Sons and Heirs as he pleased which would make the Law and all the Care and Wisdom of it in ascertaining the Son Heir to be of no Effect and leave the Kingdom in a dangerous Condition that every Prince Married in his Father's life-time and having then some Children and after his Father's Death others might occasion a Civil War who should succeed to the Crown when he died Object 9 Obj. 9. The next Objection That the King 's eldest Son is not yet Declared Prince of Wales or Prince of the Scots The Original of this Title used to be given to the eldest Sons of the Kings of England was from Henry the Third who gave his eldest Son Edward who was afterward King Edward the First on his Marriage to Elianor the Daughter of Spain amongst other Principalities in France England and Ireland likewise that of Wales Hinc natum ut deinceps unusquisque Rex qui secutus est filium majorem natu principem Walliae facere consuevit And in continuance of this Custom Anno 1610. Prince Henry the eldest Son of King James was solemnly created Prince of Wales by his Father As to the Title designing the Prince of Scotland to be next Successor or Heir apparent it seems to have been by their Investiture of Cumberland for saith Buchanan Rer. Scot. lib. 6. p. 175. That Constantine the Third in the Tenth year of his Reign Milcolumbo proximo Regis filio Cumbriam donavit qui honos velut Augurium Argumentum erat eum proxime regnaturum Ac deinceps in proximis aliquot Regibus id fuisse observaturum manifesta adversus veterem Comitiorum rationem fraude quae omnem Liberorum susfragiorum vim prope tollerit non minus quà m Cossâ—à Caesaribus Designatio Constantine the Third in the Tenth year of his Reign gave Cumberland to Malcoliâ— the Son of the last King which Honour was as it were the Inauguration or Sign of him who was next to succeed in the Kingdom and was after observed by some of the next Kings to that end to take away by Fraud the free Election by Parliament no less than did the Designations of the Consuls by the Caesars and after p. 189. he sath That Kenneth the Third being King by Election of the People to make the Kingdom Hereditary to his own Son Malcolm finding it an Impediment in his way that his Brother Duffus his Son Malcolm Cumbriae tum praefectus erat quam Regionem Scoti beneficio Regum Anglorum it a tenebant ut Cumbriae Praefectura velut omen Regni esset atque ita jam per aliquot aetates observatum erat was then Governor of Cumberland which Region the Scots held by Gift from the Kings of England to that intent that the Presidentship of Cumberland should be for a Sign who should be next Successor to the Kingdom and so for divers Ages the same hath accordingly been observed he to inherit his own Poisoned his Brother's Son and p. 190. he saith Milcolumbus regis filius in natura adhuc ad rerum administrationem aetate Cumbriae praefectus et princeps Scotorum est Declaratus quod nomen perinde est Scotis atque apud Gallos Delfinus apud priores Romanorum Imperatores Caesar apud posterio res Rex Romanorum quibus omnibus Successor superiori Magistratui dari intelligitur Malcolm the King's Son in an unripe Age for Publick Affairs is declared President of Cumberland and Prince of the Scots which Name is with the Scots Equipollent to the Daulphin amongst the French to Caesar amongst the Ancient Romans and amongst the Modern to the King of the Romans by all which Titles the Successor to the Superiour Magistracy is understood but notwithstanding for the most part this hath been the Custom yet it hath been likewise often omitted and Admit it had not yet there being no Law requiring it there is no pretence that such Omissions makes any incapacity in the Heir to succeed at Common Law or to be within this Statute for the Statute making no Distinction between the King 's eldest Son when
doth he not then who compasseth his Death compass the Death of the King himself And doth not he who slanders him to be Illegitimate compass his Death 2. Because this exposeth Majesty and the eldest Son likewise to contempt by depriving both of the hopes of a Lincal Successor And this is complained of by no less a Prince than Alexander the Great who chargeth his Army as related in Curtius p. 6. Orbitas mea quod sine Liberis sum spernitur my being childless causeth your contempt of me which want of Children inheritable put him in the same condition of being despised as was he who said Isa 56.3 I am a dry Tree And the want of a Son capable to succeed him was the Ruine of so great a Monarch his Mother House and Empire his Enemies Poisoning him in the flower of his Age securely as knowing he could leave no Son of himself to revenge his Death 3. Because who affirms the eldest Son Illegitimate doth it to the intention to seize on his Inheritance and who intend to seize on his Inheritance will compass his Death as Matth. 21.38 They said amongst themselves This is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his Inheritance And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him A Comparison of the Popish Slanders of Illegitimation against Queen Elizabeth and the King 's eldest Son Queen Elizabeth was not only declared and proclaimed Illegitimate by the Pope's Divinity but the Popish Party so far misinformed her own Father H. 8. in Matters of Law and over-wrought on the King as they compell'd him by weariness to rest on Implicit Faith in them and to declare his own Daughter Illegitimate an Error which not only he but many other Princes have been the more easily drawn into in regard by the Subtlety of Ecclesiastical and Temporal Lawyers the Laws of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession and the Comments on them have been increased to so huge heaps and confused Volumes and so many Writers of contrary Religions and contrary Jurisdictions have had their Power and Profit concerned in them as is impossible for Princes who have so many Affairs of State to look after besides to Read them over as long as they live and such faithful Protestant Subjects as have indeavoured humbly to represent the truth as to the Law of God and of the Land have been by the same Popish Party not only intercepted and Prohibited to Write or Publish any thing against but so much as to dispute the Romish as well as Turkish Alcoran of their Laws One great Example of which appears in these two great Descendents of the Blood Royal the Famous and Pious Queen Elizabeth and the Valiant and Virtuous eldest Son of the King To go on therefore in their Comparison of Suffering wrongfully 1. It may be observed that Queen Elizabeth was a Protestant and so is the Kings eldest Son a Protestant 2. Her Prosecutors were Papists so are the Prosecutors of the King 's eldest Son Papists 3. Papists laid Plots to Assassinate and Poison Queen Elizabeth so have Papists laid Plots to Assassinate and Poison the King 's eldest Son 4. The final Cause why Papists would have destroyed Queen Elizabeth was to seize on her Inheritance so the final Cause why Papists would destroy the King's eldest Son is to seize on his Inheritance 5. Queen Elizabeth was Innocent so is the King 's eldest Son Innocent 6. Queen Elizabeth was deprived of the help of a Mother by her Death so is the King 's eldest Son deprived of the help of a Mother by her Death 7. Queen Elizabeth was deprived of the help of a Father by the unjust Prosecution of Papists as appears 28 H. 8. cap. 7. by which Act she is declared Illegitimate to all intents and purposes and utterly foreclosed excluded and barred to Claim Challenge or Demand any Inheritance as lawful Heir to the King her Father And it is further Enacted That it shall be High Treason so much as to call the said Lady Elizabeth Legitimate yea the Act of Parliament is so furious against the poor Innocent Lady as if they desired to Destroy and Damn the Conscience of all good Protestants at once with hers and her They Enact further That it shall be High Treason to believe Oh miserable Thought it self is made High Treason the Marriage of the Lady Ann with the King her Father to be good lawful or not void Let it be left to Supreme Authority to consider how far the Papists have endeavour'd to proceed in the same Nature against the King's eldest Son 8. Queen Elizabeth might say as David saith Psal 27.10 When my Father and my Mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up So may the King 's eldest Son say the same 9. Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding all this was Legitimate and lawful Heir of Blood by the Moral Law of God and the Protestant Religion and so is Recognized and acknowledged by Parliament 1 Eliz. cap. 3. and accordingly God gave her the happy Succession to the Kingdom So the King 's eldest Son by the Moral Law of God and the Protestant Religion is Legitimate and the next Lineal and Lawful Heres Sanguinis Heir of Blood for Jus Sanguinis is the Law of God and Nature and Jura Sanguinis as hath already been said Nullo Jure Civili divini possunt 10. It was the Interest of Queen Elizabeth when she obtained the Lawful Power to Maintain and Defend the Moral Law of God and the Protestant Religion So will it be the Interest of the King 's eldest Son to use what lawful Power God gives him to Maintain and Defend the Moral Law of God and the Protestant Religion against Popish Ceremonial Laws and Superstitious Religions A Comparison of the Popish Slanders of Illegitimation against King Edward the Sixth Queen Elizabeth and the King 's eldest Son And the Sons and Daughters of the whole Protestant Clergy This Slander against the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy could not have been raised without another Slander first raised against the Marriages of the Mothers Both which are taken notice of by the Statute 5. 6. E. 6. cap. 12. which Statute making first a recital of the Stat. 2. 3. E. 6.21 of Repeal of all Laws of Man against the Marriage of the Clergy proceeds in these words viz. Yet since the making of the said Act divers evil-disposed Persons taking occasion of certain words and Sentences in the said Act comprized have and do untruly and very Slanderously report of Priests Matrimony saying That the same Statute is but a Permission of Priests Matrimony as Usury and other unlawful things be now permitted for the eschewing of greater inconvenience and Evils so that thereby the lawful Matrimony of Priests in the opinion of many and the Children Procreate and Born in such lawful Matrimony rather be of the greater number of the King's Subjects accounted as Bastards than Lawfully Born to the
great Slander Peril and Disherison of such Children which untrue slanderous report of Holy Matrimony doth not only redound to the high dishonour of Almighty God but also to the King's Majesties dishonour and the High Court of Parliament and the Learned Clergy of this Realm who have determined the same to be most lawful by the Law of God in their Convocation as well by the Common consent as by the Subscription of their Hands and that most of all is to be lamented through such uncomely Railings of Matrimony and slanderous Reproaches of the Clergy the Word of God is not heard with Reverence followed with Diligence the Godly proceeding of the King's Majesty not received with due Obedience c. Banns required to the Marriage of the Clergy Provided always That this Act nor any thing therein contained shall extend to give Liberty to any Person to Marry without Asking in the Church or without Ceremonies according to the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments nor shall make any such Matrimony already made or hereafter to be made good which are Prohibited by the Law of God for any other cause The Protestant Clergy by these Acts thought themselves as secure as they do now But Queen Mary immediatly on King Edward's Death repealed this Law and made all the Married Clergy their Wives and Children Rogues Whores and Bastards From whence may be observed 1. That a Marriage and Legitimation which is lawful by the Law of God may be wickedly Slandered by Papists and by Papal and Episcopal Laws to be unlawful 2. It hath been already shewn that the Marriages of the Lady Mothers of King Edward the Sixth and of Queen Elizabeth and of the King 's eldest Son and the Legitimation of Children were and are lawful by the Moral Law of God but the same have been Slandered and still are by the virulent Tongues of Papists 3. That these wicked Slanders of the Legitimation of the King 's eldest Son do produce not only the same evil Effects which the Statute declares to insue from the Slander of the Legitimation of the Sons of the Clergy but greater and more dangerous 4. That the final Cause why the Papists and their Laws Slander the Legitimation of the King 's eldest Son and of all the Sons of the Protestant Clergy is the same which is because they would seize on their Inheritance or Estate and divide the Spoil amongst the Papists 5. It is well known that the Inheritances and Estates of the Descendents of the Protestant Spirituallity and Clergy in which Body are included all Spiritual Persons Doctors of the Civil Law exercising Spiritual Jurisdiction Church-men Ministers all persons within Orders are great and numerous through the Three Kingdoms who will all Suffer if a relapse to Popery 6. That their Wives and their Descendents which have Married have been obnoxious ever since the Time of Reformation the first to Consiscation of their Dowers Jointures and Thirds The other to Illegitimation and thereon Confiscation of their Inheritances Lands and Goods The Law which forbid the Clergy to Marry was made by Pope Nicholas the First to wicked intents which have been before already shewn the Clergy and their Wives and Children are likewise left obnoxious to the same by the Proviso mentioned which requires Banns to make lawful the Marriage of the Clergy but they usually have none but are Married by Licences which makes them likewise obnoxious to the very Letter of the Act which if there should happen a Papist Successor he may take advantage thereof without a Repeal or Repeal the Act and so take advantage either way which he will Let not the Protestant Clergy therefore nor the Bishops be deceived or vainly flatter themselves that they can compound or lay the Obligation of an Oath or an Act of Parliament on a Papist Successor if any happen to be nor think he will lose so infinite heaps of Treasures as this point of the Marriage of the Clergy and the Illegitimation of their Descendents will by Confiscations of all the Jointures Dowers Thirds of all the Archbishops Bishops and inferiour Clergies Wives and of the Successions of their Posterities in the Three Kingdoms will bring into his Treasury Therefore certainly if a Papist Successor happen there will be no living for a Married Clergy-man in England it will be Heresie sufficient to Burn him if he is Married and a cause sufficient will be his Estate and for Provision his Wife must expect none unless like the Indian Wife she Burn with him in hope to find it in another World Queen Mary Illegitimated and Destroyed all the Wives and Children of the Protestant Clergy notwithstanding they were Legitimated by Act of Parliament They need look no further for an Example than of Queen Mary who was a Papist Successor to the Protestant Act of King Edward her Brother who though he confirmed the Marriages of the Clergy and the Legitimation of their Children by two Acts of Parliament left in their highest Vigour and Power and though she had solemnly promised the Protestants without whose help she had not probably come to the Throne that they should injoy Liberty of Conscience yet as soon as ever she obtained the Kingdom she repealed her Brothers two Acts and made Whores of the Wives and Bastards of the Children of all the Protestant Clergy Married Burnt them and Confiscated their Estates And that Pious Martyr Archbishop Cranmer who was Married was Cruelly Burnt amongst the rest 7. There is no way to preserve the Marriages and Legitimations of the Protestant Clergy their Wives and Children from the destruction of a Papist Successor but to have Protection from a Protestant Successor of the Crown and to cast off this Papal Doctrine of Ceremonial Marriage and to teach the truth of Marriage according to the Moral Law of God which is the true Jus Coronae as hath been already shewn and makes the eldest Son of a Protestant King and himself a Protestant to be of the same Interest with the Sons of a Protestant Clergy and to ingage him by God's help to be his Instrument to defend them and the Protestant Religion Liberty and Propriety to the Glory of God and Comfort of the People Can therefore any of the Protestant Clergy be so imprudent as in their Doctrine to destroy the Holy Just True Ancient Eternal and Immutable Moral Law of God of Marriage and Legitimation to bring in the Unclean Adulterous Spurious Illegitimate Injust Lying Upstart new-fangled Ceremonial Laws of Priapusses and Popes and not understand they thereby Slander their own Mothers and Wives to be Whores their Daughters to be Bastards themselves and all their Sons to be Sons of Whores and Bastards Can they be so inconsiderate as to imagine that any Slander they shall raise against the Marriages of the Lady Mothers of Queen Elizabeth King Edward or the King 's eldest Son or the Legitimations of Queen Elizabeth her self King Edward or
Emperors of this Realm whereby hath insued great Effusion and Destruction of man's Blood as well of a great number of the Nobles as of other Subjects and especially Inheritors in the same and the greatest occasion thereof hath been because no perfect and substantial Provision in Law hath been made within this Realm of it self when Doubts and Questions have been moved and proponed of the Certainty and Legalty of the Succession and Posterity of the Crown By which Statute appears the Judgment of the King and Parliament to be That the great incertainty of the Law in points of Succession of the Crown was one great Cause of the great Mischiefs of effusion of Blood both of Nobles and Commons which insued thereby and the fittest Remedy to be the Declaration of the Successor incertain by the King and Parliament which is accordingly therefore done in the same Statute And it likewise appears that the same Doubt in Law was raised then as to Succession which is now Whether the King's Marriage and Issue by the Mother of Queen Elizabeth was Lawful and Legitimate which is Declared by this Act of Parliament that it was And H. there is first intendency there to Declared a Legitimation of the same Marriage with Queen Ann the said Mother of Queen Elizabeth And that all the Issue had and procreate or to be had procreate without saying Lawfully between the King and Queen Ann shall be his Lawful Children and be Inheritable to the Crown Then is the Crown Declared to be to the King for Life and the Remainder to be to the first Son of his Highness of his said Lawful Wife Queen Ann begotten and to the Heirs of the Body of the said first Son Lawfully begotten and for default of such Issue with divers Remainders over and make it High Treason to slander the King's Marriage in prejudice of the Heirs of the same 3. Danger of Arbitrary disposing the Crown by Rome or Canterbury 3. The other great Danger from the incertainty of the Laws of Succession besides effusion of Blood which is the Arbitrary disposing by Episcopal Sees whether of Rome or Canterbury though only Rome named unless a Successor is Declared by the King and Parliament is likewise mentioned in the said Statute 25 H. 8. cap. 22. in these words viz. By Reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolick Contrary to the great and inviolable Grants of Jurisdictions by God immediately to Emperors Kings and Princes in Succession to their Heirs hath Presumed in time past to invest who should please them to Inherit in other mens Kingdoms and Dominions which thing we your most humble Subjects both Spiritual and Temporal do most Abhor and Detest 4. Danger of Predominancy of Papal and Episcopal Laws of Marrlage above the Moral Law of God 4. One great Cause of the incertainty of the Laws of Succession of the Crown is That Papal and Episcopal Ceremonial Laws of Marriage Filiation and Succession are tollerated in the Three Kingdoms to Usurp a Predomination not only over the Law of the Land but the Moral Law of God It is therefore necessary to avoid the Danger mention'd to proceed from the incertainty caused by Papal and Episcopal Laws That a Declaration by King and Parliament be Who shall be Successor in Particular and by Name which clears all Doubts and is the highest Security under God on which any Crown or Succession to it can depend 5. Danger to the King's Person Line and House 5. The not Declaring a Successor is Dangerous to the Person of the King and his House of which we need not look on any other Example than Alexander the Great of whom Justin Lib. 15. relates That he being desired to Declare a Successor though he had a Son called Hercules and though his Wife Roxana were Great with Child yet would he Declare neither but Will'd That he who was most worthy should Succeed which was the same in effect as if he had Will'd they should after his Death destroy one another with Civil Wars and his own House amongst them for so they did And Cassander one of his mean and not Chief Officers destroyed his Mother Olympias and all his Kindred Such was the Fate of so great a Monarch who while alive thought the World too little yet was he himself Poison'd and when Dead nor he nor his Mother nor his Children nor any of his Kindred retained any Spot but their Graves being all destroyed with him of which there appears no second Cause but his Neglect to Declare his Son Hercules his Successor who might have been a Preservative to him according to Tacitus Pravas aliorum spes cohiberi si Successor non in incerto The wicked hopes of Plots against the Possessor are Checkt if the Successor is not incertain 6. Danger of Lineal and Collateral Heirs to destroy one another 6. The Danger of the Lineal and Collateral Heirs destroying one another doth cause all those Murthers Poisoning Strangling Burning out the Eyes or perpetual Imprisonments of the Blood Royal of the Turkish Persian Aethiopian and other Eastern Kings and Emperors but that they have no Parliaments Elected by the people to Declare their Successor and to Protect the Liberty Propriety and Lives of their younger Children by standing Laws but on the Death of the old Emperor the Election or rather Sale of the Empire to the New is left to the Lawless will of the Priest or Soldier 7. The Danger if the King 's Eldest Son should die and leave Children in Minority of Guardians in Majority of Contention for the Crown between Nephews and Uncles This Danger is not so great in Scotland as in England for there as hath been already said as Buchanan mentions their Ancient Act of Parliament Enacts Vt quemadmodum Regi maximus Natu filius in Regnum Succederet ita filio ante Patrem Defuncto Nepos avo subrogaretur That as the Eldest Son of the King should Succeed to him in the Kingdom so the Son being Dead before his Father the Nephew should Succeed in his stead to his Grandfather It hath been already before shewn how dangerous Guardians Uncles are to Nephews in Minority and if in Majority all Histories witness under how great incertainty the Law is in most Nations to determin the Question which ought to be preferred the Uncle or Nephew in Succession to a Kingdom that is to say in such Kingdoms who have no Parliaments Elected by the People to establish the manner of Succession And how great Wars and Devastations have been made between Nephews and Uncles on the incertainty of the Law of the Country in that point And though in Succession to Common Inheritances in England the Nephew is by Custom preferred Jure Representationis to the Uncle and though my Lord Coke likewise in his Exposition on the said Statute of 25. E 3. cap. 2. Coke 3. Part. fol. 8. saith to be the Fitz-Eigne the Eldest Son of the King within that Statute it
Sons of Zerujah were too hard for her so it was an easie matter for Queen Mary who was a Papist Successor to lose Callice to the French The Possession of Callice once lost could not be again recovered which was done by King Philip's drawing out the Strength of the English Garrison Souldiers in his Wars against other Towns and the neglect of the Queens Council to send Recruits until too late though they had notice of a Seige intended against them The Town of Callice which was first taken by Edward the Third after Eleven Months Siege was esteemed of so high Import that on a Treaty of Marriage by King Edward between his Nephew Richard of Burdeaux and Mary a Daughter of Charles the French King Charles made an offer to King Edward to leave him Fourteen hundred Towns and Three thousand Fortresses in Aquitain upon Condition he would render Callice and all that he held in Picardy But before any thing could be concluded King Edward died And the Lord de Cordes a French Lord would commonly say He would be content to lye in Hell seven years so that Callice were in the French Possession Bak. Hist 240. But it seems since they got it in possession some of them would be content to lie in Hell for ever if Perjury will lay them there so long For there being Anno Dom. 1559. in the First year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth a Treaty of Peace between her and the French King and Commissioners of both sides to that end appointed and the Commissioners meeting accordingly the Chief point in difference was the Restitution of Callice for which the English Commissioners by the Queens Appointment offered to remit Two Millions of Crowns that by just Accompt were due from France to England At last on much Altercation it was Concluded and Agreed Perjury in the French King in not restoring Callice That Callice should remain in possession of the French for the term of Eight years and those Expired it should be delivered unto the English upon the forfeiture of Five hundred thousand Crowns for which Hostages were given But all this notwithstanding though the Conditions were Sealed and Sworn to and though Hostages were assigned to remain in England till one or other were performed yet all was frustrate and came to nothing Bak. Hist 351. So little Faith is there in the Oath of a Papist Prince And the same Danger will be in the delivering the possessions of Garrisons Forts in England to Papists or Papist Successor though on Conditions Sworn to by them the same difficulty yea impossibility for a Protestant Successor to recover again the Possession of Treasure Arms Offices Religion Liberty Propriety as it is of Life it self when once left to a papist Successor though he take an Oath to preserve all these By which and all former Examples appears That a papist Successor if he happen to be is of great Danger and Mischief to all Lay-papists themselves but totally and inevitably Destructive to all Protestants See other Examples of Perjury by Popes Bishops and Papist Princes before Lib. 2. p. 377. Of the Destruction double to Protestants if the Crown happen to fall to a Papist Successor Female and not prevented as before Destruction double to Protestants in a Papist Successor Female It is before spoken of the Destruction inevitable must follow to Protestants if a Male Papist Successor happen But if a Female happen it must be doubly Destructive for she will Marry a Foreign Papist Prince so the Protestants will be left naked and exposed to the rage and Cruelties both of a Papist and a Foreign Sword Hath not God given us already warning fresh in Memory in the late Examples of Queen Mary of England and Queen Mary of Scotland one of whom Married King Philip of Spain the other was sold by Cardinal Beton and Married to the French Dauphin And did not God even by Miracle though we most unthankfully so soon forget it Catch this Island as a Brand kindled at both ends out of the Fire Protestants barr'd of Succession to Papists by Salique Laws yet are not Papists barr'd to succeed to Protestants and hath he in vain given Sense and Reason and Strength to the Dull Protestants so far to tempt him and provoke his Judgment as to cast it thither again while the busie Papist hath barr'd all his Doors of Succession with his Laws against Hereticks and his Salique Laws to exclude alike both Female and Male Protestants 10. The next Danger is If no Successor should be Declared by the King and Parliament in regard of Foreign Princes 10. Danger of Foreign Princes That Danger is likewise very well expressed in the Statute 25 H. 8. Cap. 22. To have been the cause of great Bloodshed in this Realm and to be one of the Causes why the King desired to declare his Successor by Act of Parliament as appears in these words viz. And sometimes other Foreign Princes and Potentates of sundry Degrees minding rather Dissentions and Discord ot continue in this Realm to the utter Desolation thereof than Charity Equity and Vnity have many times supported wrong Titles whereby they might more easily and facily aspire to the Superiority of the same The continuance and sufferance whereof deeply considered and pondered were too Dangerous and Perillous to be suffered within this Realm any longer and too much contrary to the Vnity Peace and Tranquility of the same being greatly Reproachable and Dishonourable to the whole Realm The not Declaring Edgar Atheling Successor by Act of Parliament in the Life of Edward the Confessor William the Conqueror let in by not Declaring Edgar Atheling Successor let in the Foreign pretence of William the Conqueror which if it had been done 't is probable that never any Norman Invador had dared to have set his foot on English Ground So 't is probable the King of Spain had never been able to have seized on the Crown of Portugal had not the Superstitious Portuguese inslaved their Blood Royal to be Judged by the Papal and Episcopal Laws of Marriage and Succession contrary to the Moral Law of God whereby they left it in the Power of Popes or Bishops if the Spaniard or any other Papist Prince would give or promise them Money to Legitimate or Illegitimate whom they would and sell the Succession to the Kingdom at what rate they pleased Philip the Second of Spain seized the Crown of Portugal by the not Declaring Don Antonio Successor for as appears in that Judicious Author though Anonymus who writes The interest of Princes p. 95. The Case was this Henry the Third Son of Emanuel being according to the Papal Law Heir to the Crown of Portugal was accordingly Crowned Anno Dom. 1578. And being an Old Man without Children sensible of the Disputes would arise after his Death about the Succession erected a Judicature to hear and Determine the several Claims pretending to the same Of
which were Five viz. 1. Don Antonio Son of Lewis second Son of Emanuel 2. Philip the Second King of Spain Grandchild to Emanuel by his eldest Daughter Isabella 3. Philibert Duke of Savoy Grandchild to Emanuel by his second Daughter Beatrix 4. Mary Dutchess of Rarma eldest Daughter of Edward youngest Son of Emanuel 5. Katherine Dutchess of Brigance youngest Daughter of Edward youngest Son of Emanuel Of the Exceptions Declinatory Don Antonio might have made to this Judicatory 1. That 't was no Convention of Estates Elected by the People 2. That the Judges were Elected by the King who became thereby Judge in his own Case for King Henry was only the third Son of Emanuel whereas Antonio's Father Lewis was second Son to Emanuel so he being Son of Henry's elder Brother Henry would be adjudged to restore the Kingdom to him if the Judges were equal and not of Henry's choosing 3. That the Pope and Bishops were inequal Judges they assuming the only Jurisdiction of Marriage and Succession according to the Papal Laws who take Bribes and Sell the Successions of the Kingdom and so become Judges in their own Causes as 't is well known in the Case of the Natural Son of Henry King of Castile who bought a Legitimation of the Pope and thereby excluded his Brother Peter born of a Canonical Marriage after Peter had been admitted to the Throne and acknowledged for King divers years 4. That Pope Julius the Third put forth a Decree against the Promotion of Bastards without the Assent of Don Antonio or the people of Portugal he ought not to be Judged by the Law of a Foreign Prelate who thereby makes himself a Judge in his own Case The Reasons pretended why King Henry 's Judges Adjudged Don Antonio Illegitimate 1. Because he was a Bastard in Reputation but what is this to the purpose what the vulgar think who are Educated and blinded in Popish Superstition and thereby neither understand what Legitimation or Illegitimation means Judges of Legitimation ought to be Wise men and not Fools 2. Because when Pope Julius the Third put forth a Decree against the Promotion of Bastards Don Antonio sued to be exempted and thereby owned his Bastardy and what is it to the purpose what a Foreign Pope who ought to have no Jurisdiction in Portugal Decrees there without the Assent of the People or what Antonio did terrified with the superstitious fear of his Excommunications 3. Because Lewis his Father declared him by his last Will and Testament his Bastard Son To which it may be said That it was Testamentum inofficiosum against the Law of God and against the Law of Nature and void and he himself was therein worse than an Infidel to Illegitimate him whom in the same Testament he acknowledges to be his Son 4. Because Lewis never acquainted any of his Friends with his Marriage nor told his Brother Henry in his Sickness To which it may be said Marriage or no Marriage is a Matter of Law and not of Fact and Lewis being a Papist understood not what it was but according to the Papist Laws which are contrary to the Law of God But 't is manifest he acquainted his Friends and Lewis himself with what was Marriage and what was not according to the Law of God viz. Carnal Knowledge of the Mother with whom he was not Prohibited to Marry by the Law of God and begetting Don Antonio of her besides Henry was no Competent witness in his own Case of what his Brother told him or not 5. Because the witness brought to prove the Marriage of his Mother with his Father Confessed they were suborned thereunto To which may be said These Witnesses prove themselves to be Witnesses Incompetent and are of no value for a suborned Witness will as well Swear false in his Recantation as in his first Testimony It being the common practice of wicked Persons to hire Knights of the Post to testifie at first the same which true Witnesses or other Lawful Probation have proved and after discover they were suborned to draw Suspition on the true Testimony Too much of the same wicked practices have been to dishonour the true Evidence hath been given against the late Horrid Popish Plotters The Reasons alleadged by the other Pretenders to the Crown of Portugal 1. Grandchild by a Daughter and great Grandchild by a Son Couzin German of the first Degree by a Daughter and of the Second by a Son The King of Spain by his Learned Lawyers alleadged against the Dukes of Parma and Brigance that he was Grandchild to Emanuel whereas the two Dukes were great Grand-children and he was Couzin German of the first Degree to Henry the present King in Possession whereas they were only Couzin Germans of the second Degree and so the next Degree of Consanguinity was to be preferred before a more remote Degree and this the Civilians pretended to be a strong Argument in their Law 2. That when John the Base Son of Pedro was Crowned King of Portugal it was to the Injury of the King of Castile the right being in him as having then Married Beatrix the Legitimate Daughter and Heir of Ferdinando King of Portugal Legitimate Son of Pedro and Bastard Brother to Ferdinando Father to Beatrix 3. Because Portugal was given away by a former King of Castile in Marriage with one of his Daughters contrary to the Law of the Land Son of the eldest Daughter of the Son and Son of the eldest Daughter of the Father The Duke of Parma pleaded by Farneso Bishop of Parma That being Son of the eldest Daughter of Edward fourth Son of Emanuel he ought to be preferred before the King of Spain being but Son of a Daughter of Emanuel and therefore he deriving from the Male Line ought to be preferred before him who derives only from the Female Alien and Native Born The Duke of Brigance pleaded his Cause himself and against Spain alleadged the same as Parma did and to Bar Parma who was descended from the eldest Daughter as himself was from the younger Pleaded that Parma was an Alien because an Italian and he a Natural-born Portuguese The Duke of Savoy pleaded his Cause by Charles Renero afterwards a Cardinal but he being descended from a younger Daughter of Emanuel as the King of Spain was from the eldest he was presently excluded as having no colour of Right Besides these Pretenders Queen Catherine of France would have put in her Claim as descended by her Mother from Alphonse but the Claim being groundless they denyed to receive it and so the dispute remained between the King of Spain and the two Dukes of Parma and Brigance But King Henry dying while the business was in hot debate and before he had decided the Controversie the King of Spain making himself Judge in his own Case King Philip Claimed his own Kingdoms from Natural Children but would not allow it in others seized on the Kingdom which he his Son and Grandson